From Past To Future
by COMP
Summary: Two soldiers, Hiroyano Maeda and Ryan Maddox, both from World War II who oppose each other are brought to the future. This causes them to stop fighting among each other and have to work together to survive this new century. Both not knowing on what they face in the future, have to trust each.
1. Chapter 1: World at War

April 11, 1942

Manila, Philippines

The day was hot and humid, many people walking the crowded streets of Manila. Civilians and soldiers moving left and right. Vehicles passed in a uniform. Though these vehicles were not the everyday thing to see on the streets. The crowds noise were of shouting and whispers. Many faces young and old were seen. The faces of the young and old were in distraught and despair. A march had occurred, but it was no regular match.

An office building had its windows opened due to the weather. In the building there were many people working in the office. Those who were all in uniform. Along with the people in the building, there were lots of desks for those people. A personal office was located in the right of the room of desks and people. In the personal office a plate was in front of the door with two different languages. One in Tagalog and Japanese. It read "Shirei-kan" in Japanese and "Opisyal na namumuno", which meant "Commanding Officer".

In the room, a man was sitting in front of his desk. He was using a typewriter, which he was typing reports. A stack of papers were on the right of his typewriter. Each time he pressed on the typewriter's keytop it made a loud click. Then a ding, which he had to push the typewriter platen to the right with his left hand. There he heard a knock sound at his office door. The man's face was revealed.

His appearance is that he is of Asian descent. His skin tone of light yellow was showing. Along with his skin tone his hair and facial hair. He bears short hair that is jet black along with a moustache like the emperor, but along with a soul patch. Eyes, a dark brown, darker than his wooden desk. The clothes he wears is of a Japanese Imperial Officer's wear. His height is above average than his own compatriots, which is listed at 5 feet and 11 inches. His body was fit to still be an active soldier on the battlefield. His face held a scar, which was on the right side of his face. This was given to him by a soldier he had encountered on the Chinese soil.

He spoke in his native language when he heard a knock on his door. "Come in." he said while looking at the door. Another man dressed in uniform opened the door and entered the office, but his uniform was that of a soldier not an officer. The young soldier marched to the officer's desk and stood straight up with discipline. "You may sit." the officer replied to the young soldier. The young soldier sat down on the chair that was on the left of him. "Sir, during our search for the yanks, we encountered a group of villagers." the young soldier said. "So? What? Were they of importance to us?" the officer replied with confusion. "They seemed to be very strange. When we talked to them they didn't speak any languages from the region." "Maybe they might have been from the further islands down south. We surely haven't fully discovered all of the Philippines."

"We pointed our guns at them, but they didn't feel intimidated with us pointing our guns at them. They just stood still, relaxed. The one closest to me pulled their arm out and was holding out an amulet that was connected to a chain. It was very suspicious, but he offered it to me. So I took the amulet. Then I brought it here to give to you." The soldier pulled out the amulet and handed it to his superior. "I don't know what to do with it." The soldier said hesitantly.

The officer just stared at the amulet that was being handed to him. The amulet's colors were silver with a purple and orange gem fused together. This was nothing he had seen before. A gem fused together was a sight to see. Throughout his life he has only seen gems with one color, not two. He then began to raise his left hand and reached for it. Closer and closer he got to the amulet. Then he finally got a hold of the amulet and picked it up from his subordinate.

"Was that all you found?" the officer asked. "Yes, but we're still on the lookout for those yanks that got away from the march." the soldier nodded. "Thank you Gocho (Corporal) Maeda, Tetsuya. You may go on to your duties." the officer said with a smile. The soldier stood up from the seated position and saluted his superior. "You're welcome, Rikugun-Taisa (Colonel) Maeda, Hiroyano." The young soldier smiled back. Then he exited the room.

The officer still looking at the amulet in his hand. He then opened his desk drawer and placed the amulet with caution. Then he again started to type his reports. He then looked straight to onto the wall ahead of him. A poster of a picture of a man. A man who was identified as a yank who had fled the march. The death march.

With this one picture it represented on how the man looked. It was of course a white male with short hair and no facial hair, but there was no color in the picture. This made it hard decipher on how the man's hair color was. There was information on the poster. It read in both Japanese and Tagalog:

 **WARNING! ESCAPED CONVICT. FIND THIS MAN AND BRING HIM TO THE EMPIRE OF JAPAN. WANTED ALIVE NOT DEAD. It also showed the man's name. "Ryan Maddox".**

* * *

April 9, 2017

Bataan, Philippines

Footsteps after footsteps was only heard. Then proceeded with yelling in a native tongue from the far east. A line of soldiers marching in a uniform, but these soldiers weren't apart of the empire. These soldiers were prisoner of war from either with the Philippines or the United States. The soldiers marched and marched without stopping. Bear feet they marched. Feets bloodied and in pain. Fall after fall the soldiers began. Most got back up from their falls while some just lay flat with no motion. Inhumane it was.

The Imperial soldiers shouted at the prisoners. Those that fell behind were beaten and or killed. Those that fell behind and not killed ran back into the march, continuing their march. Prisoners tired and famined. Few amount of food was given to these men. The only thing that these men were looking forward to was death itself. Faces of dread and misery.

A noticeable soldier was in the march.

It was indeed the man on the poster in the future. Private First Class, Ryan Maddox

Ryan Maddox, wore American military issued fatigues, hair short like the poster, hair color brown, skin tan pink, body in shape, and a clean face. His height, the average of a soldier, listed at 5 feet 11 inches.

Ryan's face was covered in mud that had hardened. His face was exhausted from the march, but he was still in able to continue the march with ease.

Throughout the march he had saw many events that had occurred. He saw his own allies get beaten, saw them get killed by the Japanese soldiers, and some even fell to the floor with no signs of life. His view of humanity had changed from what he saw.

A man, an American soldier to the right of Ryan whispered to him. "Hey, I got a plan to get out of this hellhole." the man said quietly. He was the same height as Ryan. "What plan do you have in mind?" Ryan whispered back. "I was able to persuade one of the Filipino soldier to lead a distraction. Also I told the others to run when he distracted the guards. I told him to…" Then the Filipino soldier ran into the jungle area. The Japanese soldiers began to yell in their native language to get the man. "Damn it!" the American soldier yelled. Then the a half of the marchers began to run into the jungle area too. "Hey follow me!" shouted the American soldier to Ryan. Ryan began to follow the soldier. His adrenaline was nonstop. Fear was in his system. He heard shouting in the back of his head. It was the Japanese soldiers. Gunfire was also heard from his back. Screaming was heard. He had known that those Filipinos and Americans that were killed had ended their suffering.

Deeper and deeper they got into the jungles of the Philippines. No stopping. Just full on sprinting. Ryan was surprised that he hadn't tripped over any of the jungles vines. He was lucky that he didn't.

An hour had passed by. Ryan and his compatriot had escaped the Japanese soldiers and are now at a stop. Both men exhausted from the escape. "Damn it!" the man said again. "I specifically told that damn man to not run until I queued him to. We all could've gotten away from those Japs." he angrily said.

Ryan began to sit on the ground and just continue to stare at the man, tired. His feet ached in so much pain from the march and the escape. So much had happened today.

The man had stopped ranting and began to look at Ryan. "Hey. I never got to know your name kid." The man questioned Ryan. "My name… My name is Ryan Maddox. Private First Class Maddox. Yours?" "Names, Randall Brach. Sergeant Randall Brach, but enough with introductions we're going to have to find some footwear of sorts. We can't really travel far without them." "Yeah. Of course, but how are we going to find footwear?" "Well… If we stumble across a village we can sneak around and take some. If you're asking on why we're going to steal them, just trust me. Them Japs probably took over those villages. This region is infested with them Japs, so I don't want to take the risk of alerting any villagers." Ryan nodded at what Sergeant Randall had acknowledged to him.

"When we get the footwears we're going to be headed to Manila." Sergeant Randall advised. "Why Manila? Isn't it being occupied by the Japanese?" Ryan worried. "Of course it is, but there are airplanes that we could take to get off this hellhole of a country. Though it might take us a couple of days to get there, but it's worth the risk. Plus I know how to fly a plane. Learned it from my dad back on the ranch."

* * *

April 11, 1942

Manila, Philippines

The day was beginning to become dusk. The office building was beginning have fewer people crowding it. Officer Maeda was still working in his office, typing more reports. He started to get bags in his eyes.

Hiroyano's Thoughts:

 _Desk work is boring, but it is crucial to our emperor. It is best to give reports to my superiors. I wonder what my brother is up to. Was he still hunting for those escaped captives or was he at the bar? It's only 21:45 (9:45). He shook his head left to right._

Then a knock began at the officer's door. Hiroyano glared at the door. "Come in." he shouted. The door didn't dare to open. Hiroyano had suspicions about that. He opened his drawer and pulled out his nambu pistol. Then he began to make his way to the door with the nambu pistol behind his back. He opened his door slowly. It creeked.

"HAI YAW!"

Then with a surprise the young soldier that had entered the office room previously, jumped scarred Hiroyano. Luckily Hiroyano didn't pull the pistol in front of him or he would've shot the young soldier.

"Don't you dare scare me!" Hiroyano exploded. The young soldier was laughing with joy. The soldier was obviously shorter than Hiroyano. He was seven inches shorter than Hiroyano. "Hey, hey. You know that I always do that to you brother." The young soldier said joyfully. Hiroyano just shook his head with disappointment. "Why must I have this little brother of a kind?" Hiroyano sarcastically said. "Now away with that nonsense. How was the search, Tetsuya?" "Nothing to report. I just came here to get my older brother out and go celebrate his birthday." Tetsuya exclaimed. Hiroyano shook his head.

"I don't need this celebration at all. It's really not that necessary Tetsuya." Hiroyano insisted. "Yes you do. You've been working at this office for hours now. Since the rise of the sun. Plus when we get back to our homeland I'll have to find you a girl." Tetsuya laughed. Hiroyano shook his head yet again. With all those head shakes Hiroyano's head should have cleared off.

Hiroyano looked up at the clock and saw it was time to leave the building. "It's getting late. We have to head back to the apartment, so that we can rise early tomorrow to get back to work." "Come on. We can just go to the bar and have a drink. For your birthday of course." Tetsuya begged to Hiroyano. "No." Hiroyano with a vague answer. Tetsuya's face was unhappy. "I don't even know when your going to celebrate your birthday. I want to at least spend some time with you on your birthday before I leave." Tetsuya sorrowfully said. Hiroyano just stared at him. "Work is more important than just having leisure time." Hiroyano discussed. Again Tetsuya was unhappy.

Before they left Hiroyano's office, Hiroyano had grabbed the amulet given to him by his brother when he encountered the strange villagers. The two brothers then began to make their way out of the building to their apartment.

* * *

Meanwhile, the two American soldiers made their way to Manila hidden from the Japanese soldiers. Hiding in the jungle area to not get spotted. They were able to find footwear and food to continue their journey to Manila to steal an airplane.

It was nightfall and the two men still exhausted from their journey.

"We're finally here. Manila." Randall exclaimed with happiness. Ryan just stared at Randall with confusion.

Ryan's Thoughts:

 _Why is he so happy? We just got here and we just escaped a death is wrong with this guy? Was he drugged before we even got here. Did he eat something that drugged him? Is that why he's acting like this? He should know that we're both in enemy territory. I just think that he has completely lost his mind._

"We still have to be quiet. We don't want to grab anyones attention. They'll know that we're Americans due to our skin complexion and English skills." Randall explained. "Why don't you be quiet. What if there's someone around the corner listening to us!?" Ryan hushed Randall. Randall gave him a furious stare. "Why are you talking to your superior like this! You're just a private first class, while I'm a sergeant. Do you talk to your mother and father like that!" Randall's voice got louder by the second. Ryan just stared at the ground. "I don't have a mother and father. I don't have either." Randall's face began to change to a sorrowful mood. "Hey, kid, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you like that." The sergeant said with remorse.

The two then heard chatter coming from the road. It sounded foreign to them. The two soldiers got quiet and laid low to not get spotted.

Ryan peeked his head up slightly and saw two civilians walking by talking to each other. "It's just two civilians." Ryan expressed to Randall. "Thank god it's only civilians. Not, Japanese soldiers. Randall not worrying. "Ready to head out?" Randall questioned. Ryan nodded his head.

The two no longer in the jungle parts of the capital, are now on the streets of Manila. It was silent. No one was awake at this time. Ryan looked at his watch and saw 22:25.

The two American soldiers made their way down the silent streets of Manila, but they were unaware of what was to come next.

* * *

The two Japanese soldiers exited the building and made their way to their apartment on foot. The streets were indeed silent. Though there were some civilians and beggars on the street. Hiroyano still dressed in his officer uniform, but now equipped with his nambu pistol and katana on his sides. For Tetsuya, he still had his soldier uniform on along with his nambu pistol equipped too.

"Why didn't we just take a cab to the apartment? It's dangerous to walk out here at night." Tetsuya questioned. "It is dangerous, but there is the two of us well equipped from being mugged by any thug." "Yeah you're right Hiroyano, but what if we encounter any of those escaped soldiers?" "That is unlikely. Why would they want to be here in Manila? It's occupied by the empire. Even I wouldn't be that dumb to walk into enemy territory without an army." Hiroyano laughed. Tetsuya laughed along with his brother.

While the two Japanese brothers continued to walk they noticed two strange figures make their way out of the jungle and onto the streets. The two Japanese soldiers thought that, that was suspicious, so the two began to follow the two figures.

"Hey what's wrong?" Ryan asked when Randall stopped dead in his tracks. "We're being followed." He whispered. Ryan began to panic a little. "What are we going to do?" Ryan nervously asked. "We're going to split up. You're going to the left while I'll take the right. Go."

Ryan began to walk to the left of the fork passageway, as Randall began to walk to the right.

"Go right. I'll take the one on the left." Hiroyano directed his brother. Hiroyano slowly followed Ryan while Tetsuya followed Randall.

Ryan began to sweat heavily from being followed by someone. His pace was still the same, but it seemed like his follower was getting closer and closer to him. Hiroyano's pace did indeed get faster. Instead of Ryan keeping his patience he started to pick up his leg. Hiroyano started to pick up his feet as well. The two men were running at the same direction. Hiroyano began to yell at Ryan in his native language. "Ima sugu teishi suru! (Stop right now!)" Ryan now knows that he was going to die if he stopped running. Hiroyano began to pull out his pistol. Ryan not knowing that the person chasing him had a pistol at all. Hiroyano began to aim his pistol while running at Ryan. He aimed his pistol at Ryan's leg, but while running his aim was mostly off. POW!

Ryan heard a gunshot that was near him. Now he knew that the person following him was armed and ready to kill him. Almost out of the city again, Ryan started to run back into the jungles of the Philippines.

Ryan's Thought:

 _Why did I agree to come here? Now I'm going to die in this godforsaken hell of a place._

Hiroyano still chasing his target with his pistol out. He noticed that his target was going to run into the jungle. He didn't care if he was going to run into the jungle.

Ryan entered the jungle first then Hiroyano, second. The heated chase had gone for ten minutes. Ryan wondered if Randall had gotten away from his assailant.

Another gunshot was heard not to far from where the two were. Ryan thought if either Randall was shot, unscaved from the shot, or he had the gun. The same thought was with Hiroyano except with Tetsuya. Both men's breathing got heavier and heavier. Then Ryan, had saw Randall a few yards away from him.

Ryan's Thought:

 _Why here! Why is he here! Now we're both going to get killed by these Japanese soldiers!_

Randall kept on running forwards to Ryan. He wasn't able to see Ryan in those few yards. Then both Ryan and Randall collided with each other. Both men on the ground aching in pain. Hiroyano and Tetsuya saw the two men on the ground. Both having their pistols aimed at them.

"Anata wa daredesuka, naze ni wa fushin'na kōdō o shite imasu ka. (Who are you and why are you two acting suspicious!)" Tetsuya yelled at the two on the ground. With the moon shining at the four soldiers, Hiroyano noticed one of the man on the ground. It was Ryan Maddox. He was one of the prisoners who escaped the march. When the two Americans were being yelled at in Japanese they both just stared at him cluelessly.

Hiroyano looked at Tetsuya and said in his native language "I know who these people are. They are the escaped prisoners from the march." Tetsuya gave a shocked look at his brother. While the brothers were talking to each other, Randall noticed the Japanese soldier in an officer's uniform. It was Colonel Hiroyano Maeda. Randall whispered to Ryan "That's Colonel Hiroyano Maeda, he's one of the officers in charge of the invasion of the Philippines. If we capture him and take him with us to the nearest U.S. base we could be heros." Ryan was astounded on who the officer was.

"I got another plan and it revolves with us taking these Japs out when they're not looking at us. Like how they taught us in the army." Randall whispered. Ryan couldn't agree with Randall's decision. It was either get killed or get killed.

Both Japanese soldiers still aiming their pistols at the Americans. Tetsuya signaled the two Americans to get up. The two Americans stood up from the ground. Tetsuya again signaled the two to get moving, so that they could imprison them again.

"You ready?" Randall whispered. Ryan could only agree.

Hiroyano was behind the two and Tetsuya was in front of the two. Randall was in front of Hiroyano and Ryan was behind Tetsuya. Randall then turned quickly and tried to grab Hiroyano's gun. Ryan charged at Tetsuya and tackled him.

The fight between the Americans and Japanese erupted. Ryan was able to successfully tackle Tetsuya while Randall struggled with Hiroyano. Randall knocked the pistol out of Hiroyano's pistol, but was unlucky for choosing to fight against him.

Hiroyano unsheathed his katana and began to slash at Randall. Swing after swing, Randall was able to evade some swings, but had cuts. Randall was in pain. Hiroyano was without a wound.

Ryan was able to get on top of Tetsuya and disarmed him. He began throwing punches at Tetsuya. Tetsuya not being able to move get away from Ryan was being punched.

Randall tried to reach for Hiroyano's pistol, but Hiroyano swung his katana and sliced Randall's hand off. Randall in extreme pain. Randall fell onto his knees with his head hanging down, not being able to bear the pain. _Fuck..._ Hiroyano then positioned himself and sliced Randall's head with one swing downwards. Then Hiroyano heard a shout from the side and saw his brother captured by the American soldier.

Hiroyano was afraid of his brother's capture. "Put your sword away or your brother gets killed." Ryan shouted at Hiroyano. Hiroyano didn't respond to Ryan's demand.. Hiroyano began to go into a subconscious state and walked towards Ryan and his brother. While he made his way to Ryan, his pocket began to glow. This caught the attention of both Ryan and Tetsuya. "Brother! Your pocket! Your pocket is glowing!" Tetsuya shouted in Japanese. "Get back! Get back, right now!" Ryan shouted in fear. Hiroyano still walking forward, not hearing his brother and the American. Hiroyano got closer and closer to the two. Now glowing with a orange and purple aura. Ryan aimed the pistol at Hiroyano. "Get back or I'll shoot you!" Ryan threatened Hiroyano. POW! POW!

The bullets shot from the pistol had no effect. The bullets disintegrated, as it reached Hiroyano. Ryan was in shock, which he fell onto the ground. Hiroyano began to lift his katana up and about the swing at Ryan. Then the purple and orange aura engulfed the three men together.

* * *

 **Hello, fellow readers. Ever since I played the Mass Effect series it caught my attention on how vast the universe it is. I've only played the first, second, and third game. The Mass Effect franchise has impacted me greatly because I'm an avid fan of Sci-Fi genres. I came up with this fanfiction, as I too read many fanfictions by others. This is my first ever story and I hope to continue this story!**

 **I've always wanted to create something else than focusing on the main characters of the Mass Effect trilogy, so I went with creating my own characters.**

 **Though with me writing this fanfiction, I'll be busy with school as well. But I hope to not disappoint you, the readers! I will keep updates on each chapter as this story goes on.**

 **Also give some feedback on how my story is. Negative and or positive. It doesn't matter. It would help greatly!**

 **Enjoy!**


	2. Chapter 2: A New Encounter

Year Unknown

Destination Unknown

The aura engulfed the three soldiers. All yelling in the aura, as it engulfed them. Their visions blurred by the aura.

Hiroyano woke up and saw a farm house. He began to make his way to the farm house. He knew whose farm house this was. It was his father's farm house. Hiroyano knocked on the farm house's door. Then the door opened.

"Hello son, you've made us proud. Our nation was able to be rid of those Americans on this planet. You helped our empire destroy those Americans. You are truly my eldest son. We are truly at your debt." The elderly man said with jubilation. Hiroyano couldn't believe on what his father had said to him. His father would never say that, but where was his brother. Tetsuya. "Where's Tetsuya, father?" "Tetsuya. Tetsuya, betrayed the empire. He joined one of the Americans to fight against us. They told me he joined an American soldier named Ryan Maddox. Does that matter now? He is dead for betraying our empire." Hiroyano's eyes grew wide. He couldn't believe his eyes. It was the soldier that he had just captured in the Philippines. Hiroyano was in trance when his brother was pronounced dead. Betraying the beloved empire was nothing he would do. His father noticed his son staring in at nothing. He made his way to his son and started to shake him. "Son, wake up, wake up!"

* * *

"Wake up, wake up!" a voiced repeated to Hiroyano.

Hiroyano began to wake up with daze. His vision blurry. He saw that it was his brother waking him up. "Thank the gods. You're awake. I thought you would never wake up." Tetsuya gasped. Hiroyano lifted his body and was in a sitting position. "What happened?" Hiroyano asked. "That amulet that I gave to you emitted a glow in your pocket. Then it took us to this foreign place. I tried to wake you up when we arrived here, but you wouldn't wake up. Then the three of us…" "Three?" Hiroyano was puzzled. "Yes. The three of us. Me, you, and the American soldier." Hiroyano then became angered. The American soldier that held his brother captive with a gun pointed to his head. He turned around and saw the American soldier sitting at the corner with his head down looking at his knees. Hiroyano stood up as quickly as possible and began to charge at the American soldier. "You!" Hiroyano shouted. Tetsuya quickly grabbed his brother, so that he wouldn't have beaten the man. "Stop Hiro! Stop!" Tetsuya yelled at Hiroyano. Hiroyano looked back at his brother. "Why! Why should I stop! This man held a gun to your head!" Hiroyano exclaimed. "I know that, but we've been imprisoned by foreign enemy! We shouldn't allow ourselves to beat that man, when we're now imprisoned by another enemy." Tetsuya explained. Hiroyano looked at the ground then to the American. The American was terrified to death when he saw Hiroyano charging at him. "Who is this enemy that captured us?" "I don't know. They had four eyes and their body appearances look like us." Hiroyano was shocked.

Hiroyano's Thought:

 _Four-eyed humans? This had to be a dream. There are no such things as four-eyed humans. The only time I heard of four-eyed humans were those mythological stories father told me and Tetsuya when we were children. Could this be true?_

"Hey Hiro? Are you okay?" Tetsuya responded. "Yes, I'm fine. I just had to think, that's all." Hiroyano looked at Tetsuya. "So you said these four eyed people imprisoned us?" "Yes. What should we do? I already tried to find escape points, but this cell is very strong." "I don't know exactly." The cell was made entirely of metal. The colors the cell was dark gray. Hiroyano turned his head to the far left and saw two hooded masked people sitting near each of other trying to comfort each other. His eyebrow went up. "Who are those two over there?" Hiroyano asked Tetsuya. "I don't know. I tried to talk to them, but they can't understand me and I can't understand them. They probably can understand you. You do speak english don't you?" Tetsuya looked at the two and to Hiroyano "Okay. I'll try to communicate with them then." Hiroyano made his way to the two hooded mask people.

The two hooded masked people noticed that one of the human's dressed in an odd uniform make his way to them. Hiroyano began to talk in english to the two. "Hello. My name is Maeda, Hiroyano, I was wondering where we are?" His english having a heavy Japanese accent to it. Hiroyano also noticed that the one on the left wearing a suit that was white, red, and black like what the empire colors were. Along with a white hood and red visor. The one on the right was wearing a dark blue and black suit with the hood being dark blue and a gray visor. The two mask wearers eyes were glowing too. He also noticed that both masked individuals had breasts, which meant they were females or not.

"We're all on a slaver ship, but we haven't lifted off yet." said the masked person wearing the red. "Slaver ship? Lifted off yet?" Hiroyano responded. This questioned him even more. The only time he had heard of a slaver ship was when there were slave trades in the 16th centuries. "Yes. Slaver ship." the red one said. Hiroyano shook his head with no effort. "Are you a soldier?" Asked the one wearing dark blue. "Yes, I am a soldier." The blue one's hope rose when hearing that the human was a soldier. "Is there a reason on why you wear a different uniform than the other two?" The blue one asked again. Hiroyano looked at his brother and the American and looked back to the two sitting together. "I am an officer while the the one wearing brown is a soldier and the other I think he is a soldier too." Hiroyano said confidently. "You're an officer?" The red one said. "Yes." Hiroyano began to feel uncomfortable with the questions. "Wait a minute you said you think that that person who is wearing green is a soldier and not an officer right?" Asked the blue one. Hiroyano became uneasy, which he never becomes uneasy ever. Hiroyano was able to change the subject. "What are your names?" Hiroyano said to the both sitting on the ground. The two mask wearers looked at each other and nodded. Hiroyano became suspicious of what they did. The red one spoke her name "My name is Jiraas'Saen nar Rosseka." Hiroyano then looked at the blue one. "My name is Ralanmock'Veerah nar Tolas." Hiroyano was confused with their names. The door opened and appeared a person.

Out came an alien with four eyes like how Tetsuya described. The four eyed alien had a gun in his hand. It appeared to be shaped like a pistol. "You. With the weird uniform follow me or die." The four-eyed alien looked at Hiroyano. Hiroyano began to make his way to the door. Tetsuya stepped in the way of Hiroyano. Hiroyano surprised on what his brother did. "Out of the way human. Or you want to die." Tetsuya spoke up. "Take me." Tetsuya said in a very broken english. The four-eyed alien shrugged his shoulder. "Fine." "No, Tetsuya just let them take me!" Hiroyano said in his native language. "It's okay, brother. The superior shouldn't be taken." Tetsuya smiled and followed the four-eyed alien. This made Hiroyano furious.

The door closed itself. Hiroyano still furious at what his brother did. He began to punch the wall. Surprisingly each punch landed at the wall didn't break any of Hiroyano's bones. The two masked individuals we're amazed at his durability against such metal walls. Ryan too was amazed on what his enemy could do. Luckily the walls we're soundproof on which the guards wouldn't hear the loud metal sounds. Hiroyano became exhausted punching the metal wall for five minutes. Those five minutes felt forever for Hiroyano.

* * *

Hiroyano Maeda, a colonel in the Imperial Army. One of the youngest high ranking officers too. Born, April 11, 1918 (26). Sapporo, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. Eldest brother of Tetsuya Maeda, son of Eiji Maeda and Misao Maeda. Before becoming apart of the Imperial Army he was sociologist. He studied at an American university known as the University of California, Los Angeles in 1935. Ever since he chose to become a sociologist, his father was very disappointed at him for doing so. His father wanted him to help him continue the farming legacy, but Hiroyano wasn't enjoying the farmer life. During those days of disappointment, Hiroyano was notified by his brother that the Japanese Empire was about to go to enter the war of the world. This urged Hiroyano to come back to his homeland. Staying in America's soil for four years. Hiroyano wanted to prove to his father that he was not a disappointing son by joining the Imperial Army. Having understand people through his sociologist degree, he was able to command a squadron of soldiers to battle without any casualties on their side. His first mission was on the Chinese mainland. He led his squadron through twenty missions with high success. Taking over Chinese military bases and even three Chinese major military cities. Hiroyano went up the ranks with ease, becoming one of the youngest high officers in history. His younger brother, Tetsuya also joined the Imperial Army one year after his success. Though this did not make his father proud however. His father only wanted his son, Hiroyano to help him with his farming lineage.

* * *

Ryan then stood up and walked to his enemy. Hiroyano, unaware of the American's presence continuously looked at the wall. "Hey." Ryan said the Hiroyano. Hiroyano, now aware of the American. "What?" He said in english. "So, you know english then. I overheard you talking to the two over there in english." Ryan tried to lighten the mood. "Yes." Hiroyano said vaguely. "Who was that, that was taken by that freak?" Hiroyano still couldn't trust the American, but he had to now since they were imprisoned by another foe. "That person is my brother." Ryan looked at the ground. "What's your name pal?" Ryan questioned. "Maeda, Hiroyano. Or Hiroyano Maeda." Ryan nodded his head. "The name's…" "Ryan Maddox." The Japanese officer interrupted. Ryan gave a shocking look. "How did you know that?" "In my office… Or it was my office… There was a poster of two escaped American soldiers who escaped the march. You were on one of them. The other was the man I killed." Ryan remembered the dead man. It was Randall Brach. A sergeant. A crazy man.

* * *

Ryan Maddox, was born June 27, 1920. Madison, Wisconsin. Ryan wasn't one of the lucky children back in the days. His parents left him when he was a baby. This left him to become an orphan. Ryan's life was miserable. His life instead of going to become rich and famous, he lived a life of crime. Just petty crimes. Ryan remembered the day he was a child. He had an older sister who aided him in any situation. Though his older sister isn't his real sister rather than a friend. A close friend. Whenever Ryan got into a scuffle with a group of ruffians he would always get beaten up, but he didn't. His sister always aided him in the fight. Fight after fight, neither one of them had gotten tired. Though the life of fighting others became unnecessary to both of them. Until one day. That day was when him and his sister walked the silent streets at night. Both walking on the sidewalk encountered a man who was in front of them. The man asked them to give them their money, but both refused. The man then pulled out a pistol. His sister said that it was a bluff, but then the man disagreed and pulled the trigger at the young teenage boy. Ryan's eye's closed, but it turned out that his sister ran in front of the bullet. Ryan's face filled in tears caught his sister and was cradling her. The man quickly ran away from the scene. On that day his sister died. She died protecting him. He could have done something, but he didn't. After those dark days, Ryan moved to Los Angeles, California to pursue an acting career. Living on his own, he couldn't afford to live in an apartment. He then found a poster of joining the military. The military provided money and food for the young man. He then joined the U.S. Army. Going through the harsh training, he was able to continue his life. He was first stationed at Hawaii then to the Philippines.

* * *

Ryan's past memories were like Hiroyano's latest event. Ryan put his hand on the officer's shoulder. "Hey. Hiroyano. Don't worry. Your brother is a strong soldier." Ryan tried to comfort Hiroyano. It was obvious, as he fought his brother before. "He's hell of a fighter. He even gave me this black eye." Ryan pointed at his left eye. This made Hiroyano chuckle a little. "Hey, I got a plan." Ryan requested. _Damn it, this is making sound like Randall so much ever since he kept on saying that._ "When one of those ugly goddamn bastards enter the room we jump them. We just got to hide on the sides of the door. Then we go save your brother from those ugly bastards. One thing for sure their so damn stupid." Ryan planned. Hiroyano stood up and turned to Ryan. "We got a deal?" Ryan took his hand to try and shake with Hiroyano's. "Yes. We do have a deal." Hiroyano took his hand out to shake his former enemy. Former enemies, now both were working together to try to escape the cell.

The two hooded masked women had heard of what the humans were doing. They both stood up and walked toward them. Hiroyano and Ryan looked at the two masked females. "We want to help too." Jira and Rala said simultaneously. "Jiraas'Saen nar Rosseka. Jira is what I prefer more." "Ralanmock'Veerah nar Tolas. Rala of course." The two took their hands out. Hiroyano and Ryan both looked at their hands then to their feets. They're hands of course only had three fingers and possessing two toes. Hiroyano and Ryan we're now at a stand still for what these two had possessed. The two women were shorter than both Hiroyano and Ryan. Ralanmock was 5 feet 10 inches, while Jiraas was 5 feet 9 inches. "What is it?" Rala asked. "Nothing!" Ryan said quickly. The two humans shook their hands with the two masked women. "The names Ryan Maddox." "Hiroyano Maeda, right?." Jira asked. "Yes, or you can call be Hiro for short."

* * *

The four of them separated into two groups and into the corners in order to attack the next guard that was going to enter the cell. "So… What race are you?" Ryan questioned the two women. Hiroyano's head jolted at Ryan so fast that it look like Hiroyano had snapped his neck off. "Oh. I thought you already knew what race we are." Rala itched the side of her arm. "Well we're Quarians."Rala answered. Ryan was fascinated by their race. "What's with the suits? Hiroyano asked. "These suits are to protect us from getting sick because our people can easily get sick and die from bacteria in the air. Any location we can get sick at an instant." Jira responded. "For example if our suits get cut and our skin is exposed in the air, we would get sick. The sickness would result in fevers for us. We can survive the sickness, if we are treated right." Rala added. Ryan and Hiroyano got a better understanding on why they wore the suits. "What language we're you speaking there, Hiroyano? You weren't speaking the common language amongst the human race." Jira discussed.

Hiroyano's Thought:

 _English is the human race language? Did the empire fall? Many of the Americans spoke english. Could this be… The empire did fall, didn't it. If the empire fell, then what of it's citizens. Did they fight back too? Did my father fight the Americans. Or did they surrender and gave America control of the empire…_

Hiroyano looked behind himself to Jira. "The language I was speaking in, is Japanese." Jira was blown away by the fact that the human language had more languages than her own people. Japanese. She'd ought to look at that in the future. She used her masks interface to try and download Japanese translation.

The door opened. The four then got into a ready stance to takedown the next guard. The person stepped in.

Hiroyano and Ryan charged at the person. With both men rushing at the person it turned out to be Hiroyano's brother, Tetsuya. The two men stopped on what they were doing and gathered themselves before colliding with the young Japanese soldier. "Tetsuya!" the Japanese officer shouted with joy. Hiroyano ran to hug his brother. "How did you get out?" Hiroyano asked his brother in his native language. "I was able to take out the guard without alerting the other guards. I stuffed him into a room with cleaning supplies." Tetsuya gave a smile. "I also took this from him." He took out the guards firearm. "How does it work? I've never seen it before." Hiroyano asked. "I don't exactly know either. How about I give it to them." Tetsuya pointed to the two quarians. Jira walked up and took the gun from Tetsuya. "We're both not that skilled at using firearms, but it's simple to use. I thought you were soldiers? Shouldn't soldiers know how to use guns?" Jira to the three soldiers. The three soldiers looked dumbfounded with even Tetsuya not understanding at all. "We're not from here." Ryan explained. "What do you mean?" Rala exclaimed. "Just look at our uniforms." Ryan added. "What about it? It's a soldier uniform right?" Rala questioned. "What year is it?" Hiroyano asked the two quarian women. "It's 2181." the red dressed quarian replied. Hiroyano stared into space while Ryan looked very disappointed. "W… W… We're not from here. We're from 1942." Ryan hesitantly replied. The two quarian women shocked from what their human allies had told them. "1942! That was two-hundred years ago!" Rala expressed. "Yes." Hiroyano said like before.

During the group's discussion a four-eyed alien walked to the janitor's closet and saw one of his fellow crewmember in the closet. The four-eyed alien was in fear now. He ran to the alarm lever and pulled it. The ship began to alert all nearby allies that there were escaped prisoners.

The alarm went off and the five heard it. The group began to panic, but not Hiroyano. "Tell us on how to use this gun." Hiroyano demanded Jira. Jira handed Hiroyano the gun and told him the basics. "This is how to fire the gun. It's like any traditional gun out there in the galaxy. It also has an alternative fire, which it releases a concussive shot. The gun doesn't require the usage to reload either. It has unlimited rounds, but the gun will overheat when too many rounds are fired. We have to get to the controls of the ship and get off this planet." Hiroyano understood everything Jira told to him except the concussive shot. He didn't know what that was at all and on how to get off this planet.

Hiroyano took lead in the group having the pistol aimed and ready when they encountered the four-eyed aliens. The ship looked very outdated. The ship's walls were brown, wires were sticking out of the walls, the floor was like grates, the hallways were narrow. and the ship had a unique smell to it. The only thing that was up to date was the jail cell. Though Hiroyano, Ryan, and Tetsuya didn't know anything about space vessels. "What are these four-eyed uglies?" Ryan asked either Rala or Jira. "They're Batarians. Another race whose culture is based on slavery. They were going to sale us as slaves." Jira answered to Ryan's question. Ryan shook his head in disgust. "That's just disgusting, and I thought slavery only applied to humans."

While making their way in the ship to find the control center they encountered a batarian who was armed with a pistol like Hiroyano's. Hiroyano aimed his pistol at the unknowing batarian and pulled the trigger. POW POW. The batarian groaned in pain and fell dead onto the floor with his blood oozing out on where the he was shot twice. "Someone go take his gun." Hiroyano commanded. Ryan ran to pick up the gun, but noticed a door had opened right in front of him. The door opened and a batarian was there looking at the human and his dead ally. Ryan quickly pulled the gun up from the ground and fired three rounds into the batarian, which killed him at an instant. Ryan's heart was beating as fast as possible. This was the first time Ryan had killed someone. He had not killed anyone before, as a soldier. His emotions felt like it was travelling back and forth. "Let's go, Ryan!" Ryan stopped staring at the dead batarian and began to follow the Japanese officer. Now there were two armed prisoners blasting any batarian they see in sight. Room after room, gunfights were common. Luckily the group got even more armed in which Tetsuya, Rala, and Jira were even armed with their own personal weapons.

One room left. It turned out to be the control center. Tetsuya and Hiroyano were at the sides of the door taking cover on the wall. While Ryan, Rala, and Jira were hiding in a room for cover. Hiroyano pressed the touch screen button and opened the door. The two Japanese soldiers peaked into the room. Then a continuous burst of lasers came out of the room. "You'll never take me out you bastards!" The captain of the ship yelled at the group. He was fully armed with an automatic rifle in which the group had no match against him. Hiroyano had an idea. He began to talk to Tetsuya in his native language loudly. The captain couldn't understand on what the two were speaking. This angered the captain, which he fired even more bursts into the hallway. Tetsuya then ran in a room and picked up a tool and ran back to his position. The tool was a wrench. Hiroyano made numbers with his fingers. It went from five to zero. When it went to zero, Tetsuya got out of the cover and threw the wrench at the captain's head. The wrench went flying at the captain at a tremendous pace. The captain didn't notice the wrench being thrown that fast at him, in which it blinded the man. Then Hiroyano too, got out of cover and began to unleash his gun at the captain. Hiroyano fired four shots at the captain. The captain fell on the floor covered in his own blood. His eyes still opened. Hiroyano and Tetsuya went into the control room and noticed the batarian wearing the amulet that was originally in Hiroyano's pocket. It was shot along with the captain. Hiroyano and Tetsuya looked at each other with their eyes wide opened.

* * *

The group then began to grab the bodies of all the batarians and began to move it outside of the ship, not wanting the ship to stink of dead bodies. Each carried the bodies of the batarians. There was a total of twenty batarians that were laid out onto the planets dirt. The five were all tired from what they had did to escape the batarians slave trade.

Tetsuya, Ryan, Rala, and Jira were all outside of the ship placing the bodies onto the ground all facing up and into the sky. Hiroyano was still in the ship looking around. When he was searching the ship he noticed in the captain's quarter that there was a graphical object that had a weird symbol on it. He grabbed it and put it into his pocket. Then he walked to the hallway and heard footsteps. It couldn't have been either of his allies footsteps, but rather a hidden threat that hid from them in the gunfights. The footsteps made it to the exit of the ship. Hiroyano followed the footsteps. Then multiple gunshots were heard inside and outside the ship. Hiroyano ran to the exit with his gun in his hand.

Hiroyano was now at the steps of the the exit/entrance. A batarian stood in front of him with his gun overheated. Hiroyano looked to the distance and saw his brother standing with gaping holes in his uniform. Tetsuya began to fall to the ground. He then turned to the batarian and aimed the gun at the batarians head. He unleashed the gun until it overheated. The batarian now headless and unrecognizable all blooded and gorey. The batarians blood covered Hiroyano's face and uniform. Hiroyano ran to his brother's dying body.

"Tetsuya!" He shouted in agony. His eyes teared up and his throat having a bulge of saliva. Ryan, Rala, and Jira arrived to the scene. Ryan ran to both the Japanese soldiers and went onto his knees. "What happened?!" Ryan with concern. "He… He… He… He was shot by a batarian." Hiroyano sobbed. Rala and Jira held to each other as they saw the sobbing Hiroyano and dying Tetsuya. Tetsuya began to talk in a very quiet tone. "It is okay, brother. This. This was my fate after all. This was eventually going to happen." Hiroyano crying louder. "There is no need for crying brother. Go. Go on and live your life. I will rest here. I will see father and mother in the post-life." "No. No. Don't you damn say that Tetsuya. You'll live. You'll live." "No. You need to live." Tetsuya's voice got lighter and his eyes grew very heavy. "Goodbye brother. I will join father and mother." Tetsuya more weak. "Happy Birthday. My brother..." Tetsuya said in english to his brother. Tetsuya's body went lifeless with those words. Hiroyano sobbed holding his brother's lifeless body close to him, hugging him tightly. "Tetsuya! Tetsuya!" Hiroyano repeated his brother's name louder and louder without knowing. "Naze kare wa karedenakereba naranakatta nodesu ka! Naze sore wa watashide wa nakatta!" Ryan just stared at Hiroyano and his brother's lifeless body. This reminded him of his past life with his sister when she was shot dead. Rala and Jira began to sob. Though they didn't know Tetsuya personally, their emotions couldn't control it. This man helped save them from the batarian slavers and now he was gunned down and dead. Hiroyano hadn't felt like this ever since the passing of his mother. His brother had the potential to become the best soldier in the Imperial Army. Now that he's gone, Hiroyano now thinks that he will go insane. He has now lost two very beloved one. His mother and brother. His life is now tear itself apart one piece at a time.

* * *

 **Finally! We're now delving into the Mass Effect universe! This story starts before The Eden Prime War, so this will be a different experience. The characters will face other challenges against other threats rather than the usual Mass Effect problems.**

 **I actually typed two chapters near the first chapter because of my free time. This chapter had to go under review before I submitted this.**

 **Again, please give feedback to help either better me. Negative or positive, it doesn't matter!**

 **Hope you enjoyed this chapter!**


	3. Chapter 3: Forgetting The Past

April 11, 2181

Destination Unknown

A face of no emotion was staring at the ground. The ground was dirt. An elevated part of dirt was constructed not to long ago. It stretched for a couple of feet. It was made for the lifeless. A wooden cross was placed a couple of inches away from the dirt pile. The wooden cross was made by the American. This was to commemorate for the lifeless soul placed in it. That lifeless soul in the elevated pile of dirt was a son and a brother.

On the cross read, Tetsuya Maeda. A date was placed on the wooden cross too. August 15, 1924 to April 11, 2185. Tetsuya's was only 18 years-old.

The person standing near the grave was Hiroyano. His face filled with no emotions. He then went on one knee and bowed his head in mourn.

A hand was then placed on his shoulder. It didn't feel like a human hand, as it was three fingers on his shoulder instead of five. Hiroyano turned his head around and saw Jira looking at him with her eyes glowing through her mask.

"I'm sorry for your brother's death." she said with grief.

Ever since the death of his brother no one had talked to him, but this quarian was talking to him. Trying to comfort him and his latest lost. Hiroyano just nodded his head and looked back at his brother's grave.

"It should have been me. Not him. He didn't do the bad things I did in the past." Hiroyano blamed himself.

The red quarian shook her head softly.

"This is how life is. Life is cruel." she said to the Japanese Officer.

"You just don't understand Jira."

"I do understand. I've been in your spot before!" She raised her voice. "I saw my mother and father die in front of my eyes! They were on a cargo vessel and I was with them. We were on a trade route to trade with a colony, but we were boarded by pirates. My parents told me to hide in an empty crate with a small firearm to protect me. They too were armed, but the pirates outnumbered us greatly. One by one the pirates went." Jira's voice started to weaken. This caught Hiroyano's attention. "Then in between the fight, my mother was wounded and my father tried to make it to her. He failed to do so… She was on the ground in pain. Then one of the pirates took the advantage and was above her. He pointed his pistol at her and blasted her face." Jira's voice was now sounding to sob. "Then my father was next. My father's rage was at full. He killed almost all of the pirates except one. The last one killed my father. I saw all of it through the crate's hole. My face was filled of tears. The last pirate looked at my father's and spat at his visor. I pushed the top of the crate and started to fire my pistol at the last pirate. I killed him. This was the first person I killed… I went over to my… My… My parents... Dead in front of me… I shouldn't have stayed in the crate. I should've saved my pa. Pa. Parents." Jira went on her knees and cried. Hiroyano made his way to Jira and hugged her to comfort her. Jira hugged Hiroyano back too.

"I'm sorry." the officer said.

* * *

In the ship, Ryan was in the crew quarters. He was sitting on a bed once owned by a batarian who was killed in the firefight. He stared at the steel floor reflecting on what had happened to the young Japanese soldier who was blindsided by the batarian. He rocked himself back and forth slowly with his hands on his mouth. Seeing the death of his enemy was what he wanted, but this man wasn't his enemy. It was an ally. An ally who saved them from the true enemy. Seeing the death reminded him of his older sister, Lucina. His eyes started to fill itself up with water.

"Hey, Ryan." a blue dressed quarian spoke softly.

Trying to be the man he is, Ryan held back his tears.

"Is everything alright?" Rala added.

"Yeah. I'm fine… Just trying to cope to what happened to Hiro's brother." in a sorrowful tone.

Ryan looked at the quarian dressed in blue standing near the door. The quarian was looking around in the crew quarters. The crew quarters was large due to the ship having over twenty occupants living in the ship, but the ship itself was crowded for twenty crewmembers. Rala shifted her head back to Ryan.

"So, you said you were from 1942, right?" Rala questioned the American soldier.

"Yeah, I'm from 1942. Well I wasn't exactly born on 1942." Ryan chuckled.

"Of course I would know that you weren't born on 1942." Rala laughed. "When were you born?"

"Ryan Maddox, born June 20, 1920. In a city called Madison in the state of Wisconsin." Ryan acted. "Also, if you're wanting to know how old I am, I'm 22 years-old. Though me being in the future, I'm pretty old."

"Why do you speak in a third person view?"

Ryan stared at Rala in confusion. "Never heard of acting before?"

"Of course, but talking in third person is awkward. No one acts in third person." Rala added.

Ryan's Thought:  
 _This is an awkward conversation. I really need to tell her on how acting works or she doesn't understand on how humans can act._

"What did you do in the past?" Rala asked hesitantly.

"Well, you know that I'm a soldier already. An archaic soldier of course, but before I was a soldier I was an actor. I wasn't really renowned actor. I just acted in small plays, but I always wanted to act on the big stage. Acting got me nowhere actually. I couldn't pay for my apartment rent, which I chose to join the military. Maybe I might go back into acting, if it's still possible."

Rala turned her head to the right a little. "Is that why you were talking in third person? I thought actors talked in first person?"

These third person retrospectives annoyed Ryan.

"Alright, alright. That's enough about third person views. I want to know about you Rala." Ryan reversed the role.

Rala giggled, as she just wanted to annoy the soldier.

"Okay. I was born August 7, 2161, which makes me 20 years-old. I wasn't born on a planet rather than a ship. It was called the Tolas." Rala informed Ryan.

Ryan's mind went back. He thought Tolas was her last name. This questioned him a lot.

Rala continued "Before I left my birth ship, I worked as a delivery person. It's a basic concept. I helped provide deliver goods to everyone on the ship. It's a pretty busy job on the ship. It's a crucial job to have in such a cramped ship."

"What made you leave your birth ship?" Ryan's right eyebrow rose.

"Well… I had to leave actually." Rala looked down at the floor.

"Why?"

"It's because of my pilgrimage that requires me to leave my birth ship." she said with little confidence. "I forgot that you're from the past… A pilgrimage is a passageway to my people's adulthood. Every young quarian has to go through this process. It helps my people survive the harsh conditions of living on migrating ships. In order to help aid our ships survive longer, we leave our birth ship and head to planets with inhabitants. Any inhabitants that'll help provide us with jobs or we go scavenging for things. The whole point of this is for us to bring a gift to our new ship that we would be living on, but the gift must have value that will help provide for the ship. For example, if I was to bring an artifact as a gift I would present it to my new ship. My name would change too, from Ralanmock'Veerah nar Tolas to Ralanmock'Veerah vas Idenna."

Ryan began to understand the ship name now. It was a representation of who they represented, but he had no understanding of nar and vas. That made Veerah was her last name, he believed.

"So what does nar and vas mean?"

"Oh… I forgot to tell you…" Rala rubbed her right arm. "The meaning for nar is child of and vas is crew of." Rala informed the soldier.

Ryan nodded with acknowledgement. The information presented to him made him even more curious about the quarian race. He learned many fascinating things in his travel to the Philippines, but he learned a lot from the female quarian. He learned on why the quarians wore suits and the pilgrimage they have to do. This made his mind think deeply. These people actually have to suffer a life wearing a suit to protect them from bacterias and having to give gifts that is used to provide for their new ship to be able to sustain the ship.

The thinking made Ryan's head hurt. He stood up and looked at Rala who was staring at the ground with her head looking to the right.

"Want to look around in the ship?" Ryan asked.

"As a matter of fact, I would like to look around the ship. For any type of goods of course." she happily said.

* * *

Hiroyano and Jira still hugging each other on their knees. Then the hug was released. Hiroyano looked at the quarian's face, but all he could find was her illuminating eyes. Jira was looking into the officer's eyes, dark brown, but she noticed a scar on the right side of his face. It was visible if someone was close to him.

She felt her body warm up when she starred at the officer.

Jira's Thought:  
 _This is completely wrong. I couldn't simply fall for this human. I know he wouldn't fall for me. I'm an alien to him, plus he would think I'm hideous._

The officer put his left hand on the ground to support him to stand up. He then took his hand out to help Jira up. Jira accepted the gesture. The two both standing made their way to Tetsuya's grave.

"Hey, Hiro!" from behind the two.

Hiroyano and Jira looked behind them. It was Ryan and Rala.

"I found your sword and two pistol. I found it in the armory in a storage unit." Ryan told Hiroyano.

Ryan walked up to his former adversary and proceeded to hand Hiroyano his blade and pistol.

"It's actually called a katana." Hiroyano affirmed.

Ryan just shrugged his shoulders and Hiroyano grabbed his katana first and placed it into the saya that was on the right side of Hiroyano. With hesitants, Hiroyano looked at the Japanese manufactured pistol. He grabbed the pistol. Then he turned around and placed the pistol on the top of his brother's grave. This prompted Ryan to take the other pistol and place it on the grave showing his respects. Ryan then looked at Hiroyano and gave a smile to the officer.

"Thank you." Hiroyano was pleased with Ryan's actions.

The two humans and the two quarians made their way to the empty slaver ship's entrance. Ryan and the two quarians were the first into the vessel while Hiroyano near the entrance looked behind him to look one more time at his brother's grave.

The memories he had with his brother were precious to him. Seeing him being born to seeing him die. This was very traumatic to him. He should have accepted his brothers invitation to go to the bar to party for his birthday, but it turned into a dark birthday for him. It was only him by himself now. No one close to him was alive anymore. He still blamed himself on his brother's death. Such a life lived short his brother had. He still had an enormous part to live through, but he's now dead. It was true on what Jira said. Life is cruel. No one can escape such event. It's a constant occurrence happening everyday in everyone's life. The memories of his brother will never be forgotten in his mind. He had already dealt with many of these things before. Even when he slaughtered other soldiers of whom were fathers, sons, brothers, uncles, and nephews. He was told that he was a psychotic killer in his time leading an military division. He had to accept the fact that his brother's death was an honorable death. Hiroyano then turned away from the grave and headed into the vessel.

Being forgotten is an ultimate form of death.

* * *

The three made their way into the ship's bridge, while entering the bridge they saw all the buttons in front of the pilot's seat. The bridge wasn't too small or too large. It could fit up to five crewmembers. There were two seats in the front, which indicated that it was for the pilot and the co-pilot. Also, two seats were at the back of the bridge. One on the right and the other on the left. The seats faced at a terminal, but all the seats were able to spin around.

"So… Do the two of you know how to fly this... Whatever you call it?" Ryan rubbed his head.

"It's called a ship." Rala crossed her arms. "But I do have the basics of flying ships."

"I do too." Jira responded.

Ryan made a quiet sigh, as he was relieved to hear that the two quarians knew how to fly this so called ship. The two quarians made their way into the pilot and co-pilot seats. Rala and Jira enabled the ship's control. An orange visual appeared in front of them. The two used their hands to turn on the ship's engine for takeoff. The American soldier's face was dumbfounded at seeing such technology. If it weren't for the two quarians, he wouldn't have been able to get off this planet. He was glad to have these quarians on board with him.

Then Hiroyano walked into the bridge. His face too was dumbfounded at the controls of the ship. He of course only saw water vessels control. This was true. The future has changed the way of living.

"Are you two ready for takeoff?" Rala happily said.

"Takeoff?!" Ryan panicked.

"You two better take your seats right now." Jira hinted.

The two made their ways quickly to the seats on the left and right. The ship then began to lift off the planet's ground. The two humans felt uneasy at this new experience, but Ryan felt uneasy six times as more than Hiroyano. Ryan and Hiroyano had flew before on a airplane, but not a ship with all these flashy lights. Ryan's face started to turn white. The ship stood floating for a short time.

"Thrusters to maximum." Jira proceeded.

The ship began to aim up and into the sky. A loud roar was heard. VROOOM! The ship flew into the sky at an instant.

"AHHH!" Ryan screamed in fear loudly. He also closed his eyes shut.

In the bridge area, the ship wasn't shaking as much as the two humans would have thought.

Finally in space.

Hiroyano was astounded at what space looked like.

"This… This… Is beautiful." Hiroyano gasped.

Hiroyano's eyes glowed looking at the pilot's window

Hiroyano's Thought:  
 _Tetsuya would have enjoyed seeing space for himself. His reaction would've been priceless._

Hiroyano started to recollect himself and he looked to his right and saw the American still closing his eyes.

"Hey, Ryan. You can open your eyes now. It's over." said with his accent.

"No. I can't." Ryan still closing his eyes.

"Just look. It won't kill you." Rala laughed.

"No."

"Look at it!" Rala commanded him.

"Fine. I will. If I die it's your fault Rala. And you too Hiro." the American sarcastically said.

He opened his eyes and saw the magnificent view of space itself. He always wanted to be in space and this he achieved. The view of space will never be forgotten in Ryan's mind. Everything from planets, stars, etc. This made his day. This also made him feel like the first American in space as well.

"Where are we heading to?" Ryan asked the two quarians.

"We're going to be heading to Illium." Jira responded.

The American scratched his head. "Illium? What place is that?"

"It's a planet. It's also a hub planet in its system too." Rala said.

"Hub?" Hiroyano questioned.

"Hub meaning a major business area. It's populated with lots of people. Illium is the only planet in the system that is a hub." Jira said.

"Then what planet were we on then?" Ryan wanted to know.

Jira looked at the co-pilot's user interface. She pressed on the interface and saw the logs.

"The planet we were on was Vecchio." Jira replied.

"So we aren't that far from Illium. We just have to travel to the mass relay and head to the Crescent Nebula cluster and we'll be in the Tasale system just like that." Rala snapped her fingers.

"Indeed we will be." Rala smiled.

"How long will it take us to get to Illium?" Hiroyano wondered.

"Approximately eighteen hours." Jira answered.

Hiroyano nodded at Jira.

"I'll just let this go on autopilot, so that we can just relax for now." Rala talking to Jira.

The two quarians got up from their seats and made their way to the bridge's door. The two humans also got up too, but with caution. The two humans made their way to a room that looked like a mess hall. While the two quarians walked elsewhere on the ship.

"Is this the mess hall?" Ryan observed the room.

"I believe so. There is a fridge and a weird looking stove." Hiroyano pointed out.

Ryan sat at a table surrounded with four chairs.

Hiroyano made his way to the fridge and opened it. In the fridge appeared weird foods such as platters with weird looking meats. Also there were eight tubes filled with a gray like colored paste labeled levo and dextro. Four for levo and four for dextro. He had no idea on what this meant, but he didn't dare touch the platters with weird meats on it. He instead grabbed the pastes and proceeded to make his way. In his hand was a paste tube with dextro in his left and on his right was the paste tube with levo.

"Here you go. I believe that this is food." Hiroyano was unsure.

The Japanese officer handed the levo paste tube to the American. He still had the dextro paste tube in his left hand. He sat down in front of Ryan. Ryan began to turn the tube's lid to the left to open it. Same with Hiroyano.

"Let's see how it tastes I hope it tastes like chicken.." Ryan joked.

Ryan put the tube in his mouth and began to press the tube to get the paste into his mouth. Hiroyano just waited to see Ryan's reaction towards the tubed paste. Ryan face became uncomfortable as the paste went into his mouth and down his throat. He pulled the tube out his mouth and his face was with disgust.

"Ewww… That's nasty. It has a weird taste to it and the texture just feels horrible in my mouth." Ryan in disgust. "I personally didn't enjoy it. I don't think you'll enjoy it Hiro. It's disgusting."

Hiroyano then moved the tube near his mouth. All of a sudden the mess hall's door opened. Both Rala and Jira looking at each other talking until they saw Hiroyano almost about to put the tube in his mouth shouted at him.

"Don't eat that!" the blue and red quarian shouted.

This caught Hiroyano's attention. He then turned his head to the quarians. He wondered why he couldn't eat it.

"Why can't I eat it?"

"Yeah why can't he eat it?"

"It will poison you if you eat it." Rala informed the two.

"What?! Poison me?!" Hiroyano panicked.

"Wait! I ate some out of this tube, so am I getting poisoned too?!" Ryan worried. "Hiro, I thought we were getting well with each other." in a sarcastic tone.

Jira and Rala walked to the occupied table. They both grabbed the tubes from the humans. Rala held Ryan's tube while Jira held Hiroyano's tube. The two tubes were labeled with different words. Rala sighed in relief that Ryan's tube was the right one, as for Jira she sighed that Hiroyano didn't eat the tubed paste.

"Good news. The tube you ate, Ryan was the correct tube for you." Rala explained.

"So. No poison in me?"

"Yes." Rala made a thumbs up with her hand.

"What about my tube?" Hiroyano asked.

"Luckily you didn't eat from this tube or you would have been poisoned." Jira implied.

"Is there something wrong with this tube exactly?" Hiroyano wanted to know why.

"It's because of it being labeled dextro." Rala said.

"Yes. Dextro based foods aren't suitable for humans to eat. It will poison you if you eat it. The foods you eat are levo based. Ryan was lucky that he was given the levo based tube or he would've been poisoned." Jira concluded.

"What about you? Can you eat it and not get poisoned?" questioned Ryan.

"Yes I can eat dextro based foods." Jira said. "Oh yeah. Quarians in general only eat dextro based foods, but we can't eat levo foods. The reasoning would be the same with the poisoning. If I were to eat levo food, I would get poisoned."

"Hey, Rala here." Ryan devilishly said handing the tube to her.

"Oh thank you, Ryan." Rala responded

Rala then was about to put the tube into her mouth slot, but then she stopped.

"You bosh'tet." Rala giggled. Then she launched the tube with high velocity at Ryan.

"Ow! Hey!" Ryan said playfully. "Bosh'tet? What's that?"

Jira and Hiroyano shook their head with disappointment. Hiroyano got up from his seat and handed his tube to Jira.

"Here, this won't kill you like how Ryan tried to poison Rala." Hiroyano said to Jira while glaring at Ryan.

"...Thank you… Hiroyano." she smiled under her mask.

Hiroyano nodded his head and walked to the door and headed into the hallway. The room was silent when Hiroyano left. Rala walked to the fridge and grabbed one dextro tubed paste and sat at the table where Ryan was sitting. Jira was still looking at the door that Hiroyano had walked out to. She worried for Hiroyano.

"You should eat Jira. We were held captive by those batarian slavers for sometime now." Rala said.

"I'll eat later." Jira put the tube into her suit pocket and grabbed a levo tubed paste from the fridge. "I'm going to check on Hiroyano."

"Okay." Rala nodded.

Jira exited the mess hall.

* * *

Jira moved room to room trying to find the Japanese officer. She was determined to find him in one of the rooms. The crew quarters, the storage room, the janitor's closet, the armory, and the lounge area. She then opened the captain's quarters door. There the Japanese officer was. Sitting down on the ground where the previous captain's body lay. He was curled back to the wall, head below his knees pointing up into the ceiling, arms wrapping around his legs, and sobbing quietly.

Jira slowly walked to the sobbing officer and sat beside him. She put her hand on his shoulder.

"No need to cry Hiroyano."

"Why are you here? You don't need to be here." exclaimed Hiroyano.

"I do. I do need to be here. For you." Jira said sincerely. "Let me help you Hiroyano."

This brought attention to the officer. "No. I don't need your help."

"Yes you do! You hide your emotions and keep it deep in you. You don't need to hide anymore. I worry for you."

"Hiding all my emotions is what makes me move on in my life. I've done and seen many terrible things in the past."

"What terrible things have you done then? Tell me." Jira was filled with curiosity.

"I killed lots of people…"

"I killed people too. Does it matter?" Jira cut him off.

"No. It's not like I killed one or two people. I killed thousands of people. Those thousands were sons, fathers, uncles, nephews and brothers. I've been called many horrific things by mothers, sisters, nieces, and daughters..."

Jira paid close attention to Hiroyano.

"Back when I was serving in the military. I commanded a small army in which they were forced to kill people to take over their city. The city was in China. The most grim thing I did was kill a father. I thrusted my sword into the father while his son and mother watched me kill him. He was trying to protect his family from my army. The father was spewing blood out of his mouth. I saw the child's face. His face terrified. His mother's full of tears. I lost myself after that event. The family was taken away and put into a prison camp. It was something I deeply regret. All of this was to make my father proud of me. I am just a selfish bastard. This is why I hide my emotions. These emotions brought weakness to me. Watching my brother die in front of me reminded me of that family. Peace that is now broken."

Such travesty Hiroyano told Jira about. She didn't know that this officer was a murderer, but she didn't care about that. That was all in his past. She then moved her arm to wrap behind Hiroyano. She placed her free hand across his body. She was hugging him from the side.

"There's no need to relive those memories. Reliving with those moments will be a burden to you. Forget those memories and look to the future and don't look back." Jira said with her heart. "If it weren't for your brother we would have all been captured by those slavers. I will tell you this. Your brother is my hero. His legacy will be remembered. You still have to live on and bring his legacy. Your brother will not be forgotten in my mind."

The officer's sob became more weak with Jira hugging him. He liked the feeling of her hugging him. He picked his head up and looked at Jira. His face had tears going down his cheek. Jira used her other hand and wiped his tears. Hiroyano appreciated Jira's comforting. This caused his sobbing to stop.

"Thank you for those words." Hiroyano was pleased.

"You're welcome." she said in a delightful mood. "Also, I have to give this to you. Don't starve. Please."

Jira handed Hiroyano a tubed paste labeled with levo.

"I overheard that today was your birthday too. Happy birthday, Hiro." Jira celebrated.

He nodded and smiled. He appreciated Jira's company. He felt like Jira was his mother or even a very close friend. Even though they only knew each other today. He accepted the tubed paste and opened the lid. Jira also opened her tubed paste. Both still sat on the metal floor eating the paste that had no taste. Hiroyano accepted the paste.

* * *

After Jira left the mess hall, only Ryan and Rala were left there.

"You called me a bosh'tet? What's that?" Ryan wondered.

"It's nothing. You don't need to worry about it." Rala giggled.

"Well I do need to know. Is it like a profanity word?"

"You can say it's something like that."

"Really?! Is it like bitch? I hope not." he laughed.

"It just depends, really. It could mean that and many things." she tried to not to go to far with it.

Ryan and Rala laughed and then started to eat their tubed paste. Ryan saw that Rala put her tube into her mouth port. It was quiet with the two of them eating their paste.

"I don't know why I'm still eating this nasty crap, but I think I'm getting use to it." Ryan said.

"At least you can eat more things that look delicious. I can't eat anything except for these tubed pastes." she was jealous.

"Really? You can't eat anything except paste? Ryan was dumbfounded.

"Yes. Only pastes, but there are different flavors of pastes. It really doesn't matter anyways. I've gotten use to eating any type of paste." Rala answered

Again the room became quiet. Ryan looked around in the mess hall. It was quite small to be a mess hall. Only a few tables and chairs. It felt like a tiny diner to him. Except that there was a fridge and a weird stove for the crew. He then had nothing to look at after seeing the small room. His view changed to Rala who was still looking around. He found her to act like someone he knew. His sister or close friend, Lucina.

"Hey I got a question for you?" Rala asked.

"What is it?"

"I'm just wondering on how you're coping with all of this." she wanted to know.

When Ryan heard Rala say that to him it made him look down at the table. He didn't know how to answer Rala's question. Rala wondered if the question was appropriate to say to him. She didn't want to offend him.

"You don't have to answer it if you don't feel comfortable Ryan."

"Yeah. I don't feel comfortable answering it, but I will tell you." Ryan was very hesitant in continuing.

"The way I cope with all of this happening is by forgetting. It's best to forget about those tragedies. Like what happened to Hiro's brother. I've already experienced that in my past. I lost somebody close to me like that except the overload of bullets fired into them. That's how I'm coping with all of this."

Rala understood on where Ryan stood, but who was the close person he lost. She wanted to know, but she just stayed quiet trying not to make the environment more awkward. Ryan was quiet after that. He didn't want to say anything else. He began to eat the paste without knowing he was eating it.

"I can't believe that I'm still eating this gunk." Ryan chuckled.

This caused the room's mood to change from a serious tone to a upbeat tone. Rala laughed at Ryan.

* * *

 **Hello readers!**

 **It took me a while to make this chapter due to school. School has been taking me away from writing. I also changed the formatting of the story for you readers to better understand the character dialogue. I hope you readers will enjoy the new format.**

 **Many thanks the new followers for following this story as it progresses! Thanks to those that made this story their favorites!**

 **Don't forget to add your feedback!**


	4. Chapter 4: The Grateful Act

April 12, 2181

Aquila System, Ismar Frontier

The stars glowed in space. Every star flickered different colors. It was a spectacular sight to view. Space travel is an experience to have, but it can come at a heavy cost. Traveling in space is like surviving on a planet's surface. Not knowing what could happen. Anything can happen at anytime. Space is an unpredictable entity.

From afar a ship traveling in space is heading to the mass relay. This ship particularly was not an average ship flown in the Ismar Frontier. The ship was of batarian design. A slaver ship. Slaver ships are feared by many civilian ships. This made civilian ships to avoid crossing paths of slaver ships. The slaver ship was still hours away from the mass relay. Though this slaver ship wasn't occupied by slavers. It was liberated by yet a small group of individuals. The liberators were three humans and two quarians. One human was left back on the planet they landed on, so this made only four occupants on the ship.

In the crew quarters of the ship were two individuals sleeping on previously owned beds. The two sleeping is a quarian whose suit color is dark blue and a human wearing green fatigues. The beds were organized in rows like how military barracks would be organized. Couple of feet away from each other.

In the bridge room sat another pair similar to the pair in the crew quarters. A quarian and human, but both had different appearances than the two sleeping. This quarian's suit color was obviously red, white, and black. While the human wore a light brown officer's uniform. The quarian sat at the pilot's seat, as the human sat at the co-pilot's seat. Out of the two the quarian was the only one that knew on how to control the ship.

"How much longer until we reach the mass relay?" the officer said in his accent.

"Just about two hours from now." the quarian wearing red informed.

The two sat at the front of the ship looking into space. The view still amazed the officer, but for the quarian, she already seen space many times in her life.

"I forgot to tell you something." the quarian said.

"What is it?"

"Your birthday was yesterday."

"...What about my birthday?"

"Well… I want to know how old you are." the quarian body grew warm.

The officer was intrigued by the quarian's question. He didn't know why she would ask for his age. Age is never seen special to him, but he was willing to answer the quarians question.

"I am 26 years-old." the officer responded in confidence. "What about you? How old are you?"

"I'm 22 years-old." she stated. "What year were you born? I already know the month and day, but not the year."

The officer nodded his head.

"1918, was when I was born, but of course I am considered very old because of the years traveled." he laughed. "What about you? When were you born?" the officer questioned in his accent.

"I was born May 2, 2159." she said. She then turned her head to the officer. "Where were you born?"

The officer looked back at the quarian. "Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. Earth. What about you?"

"On a ship. A ship called the Rosseka. It's a civilian ship that still today migrates around in space."

This caught Hiroyano's attention. He wanted to know why, but an object started to beep. Hiroyano didn't know what the beeping was. It was either good or bad news.

Jira pressing on the pilot's controls then opened a window. It was a message. It was not only a message, but a distress message. She accepted the distress message. It showed a video of a human man. The man's appearance showed that he has a short full beard, medium/long hair brown hair, hazel eyes, and wearing a baseball cap.

"Hello, anyone who is out there I need your help. My ship has lost its fuel and I am stuck in space. If you can please help me. Don't be alarmed. I'm no pirate or slaver. I'm a cargo ship pilot. Here is my coordinates. Please I need your help." the message informed the two.

Hiroyano and Jira both looked at each other. Hiroyano was concerned about the message. Jira was also concerned, but Hiroyano didn't know on what Jira wanted to do because her face was hidden from her mask.

"Are we going to help the man?" Jira to Hiroyano.

"I'm unsure of what to do." Hiroyano confused.

"Let's wake up the other two to tell them about this." Jira said.

Hiroyano nodded with agreement. The two got up from their seats and exited the bridge area. The two entered the crew quarters and patted at the sleeping individuals to wake them up. The two awoke from their slumber. Hiroyano and Jira asked their companions on what to do in the situation. Ryan and Rala agreed to help aid the cargo pilot. Then the other two agreed on aiding the cargo pilot.

The four entered the bridge area. Rala in the pilot seat set the destination to the coordinates the cargo ship pilot gave them. The coordinates given to them weren't that far from their own location. The ship started to move to the coordinates.

Their ship found the fuelless cargo ship floating about in space. From inside the bridge area they saw the floating cargo ship. The size of it was a little smaller than theirs. It looked very empty, but they knew that someone was in there. Jira pressed on the co-pilot's interface and transmitted a distress call to the ship.

"Hello? Is there anyone on the ship?" the quarian in red declared.

There was no response.

The four were puzzled. Was this a diversion or was the man already dead? Static noises came from their call.

"Hello. Hello. Are you here to help me?" the voice protruded from the interface's sound appliance.

They were surprised that there was someone on board.

"Yes. We are here to help you." Rala in praise.

"Thank you! Thank you very much!" the man's voice sounded in pleasure. "Do you have fuel?"

"Let us check first for fuel." Rala said. "Hey Jira, can you go look in the engine room for any fuel?"

Jira nodded and got up and exited the room.

"Do you want us to connect our ship to yours?" Rala asked.

There was silence again.

"Yes. Please do so." the man responded.

Rala made the ship move to the side of the floating cargo ship to connect to each other. Rala used the ship's interface and moved the orange panels around. She clicked on the orange panel to connect the ships together.

"We're connected." Rala to the cargo ship pilot.

Jira entered the bridge room. "What's going on?"

"We've connected with the cargo ship. Why?" the American asked.

Jira was frustrated at Rala's decision to connect the ship, but either humans knew she was frustrated under her mask.

"Do we have fuel, Jira?" Rala questioned.

"Yes we do. About five containers filled with fuel."

"Good. I'm glad that those slavers prepared for such things." Rala laughed.

"Is it sustainable to board each other's ship?" the man responded.

Rala looked at an orange panel located at the top left. It read safe boarding.

"Yes it's safe."

"Well then greet each other in person." the man's voice was staticy. "Can you bring the fuel in. I have to set some configurations."

"Okay. We'll bring the fuel." the quarian in the blue happily said.

The four left the room, but the call was still on.

"Watch out for the lights. I'm trying to configure the settings so that it won't…" the transmission ended.

* * *

The four walked to the boarding platform. They brought two containers of fuel on a platform cart with them to the desperate pilot. The two humans were unsure of the boarding platform, as they thought they were going be sucked into space. They entered the boarding platform. The door they entered from closed. A hissing noise came from the cargo ship's door. It opened. They were instantly blinded by bright lights coming from the cargo ship. Their hands were covering their eyes from being blinded by the bright lights. Hiroyano thought they were in immediate danger because they were blinded by the lights. He pulled out his thermal powered pistol and aimed it at the light.

"STOP! DON'T SHOOT!" a voice in fear shouted in the light.

The lights started to dim down. A black silhouette appeared behind the light. The silhouette grew larger and larger as it walked closer to the group. The figure was very tall and it intimidated the four. The lights then turned off.

"Sorry for the lights guys. I warned you guys before all of this." the man spoke.

The group was blown away by the man's appearance. He towered over all of them. They originally thought the man was about their height or taller.

"Uhh… Is something wrong here?" the cargo pilot questioned.

The group still speechless.

"...Is there something on my face?"

Ryan walked up to the cargo pilot. "You're giant…" that's all Ryan thought of.

"Yeah, I am a giant... I guess... Does it matter?" the man was confused.

"Yes." Ryan couldn't say anything else than yes.

It was a sight to see for the group. Ryan and Hiroyano had completely forgotten about their presence on the boarding platform. The quarians had never seen a tall human before in throughout their pilgrimage. Neither had the two humans, but Ryan had heard of a person who was tall back in the United States. Luckily the cargo ship's ceiling was higher than the man or he would have constantly hit his head on the ceiling. The quarians thought that the man was mixed with an elcor or a krogan, but that wasn't the case.

The cargo ship pilot was very confused at why they continued to stare at him. He wanted to get their attention.

"Hello. Hello. Hello. The fuel. I need fuel for my ship." The man didn't want to be rude to his rescuers.

"Right. The fuel." Ryan remembered.

Ryan pushed the platform cart onto the man's ship. Hiroyano still had his advanced pistol out just in case of an ambush. Rala and Jira walked behind the two humans still mystified at the cargo pilot's height.

"Where to chief." Ryan remarked.

The man gave Ryan a strange look. "Follow me and can you put your pistol away. It's making me uneasy."

"Why should I?" Hiroyano pointed the pistol at the man.

"Alright." the pilot put his hands up then down. "Fine. You can have your pistol out, but please no shooting in the ship. I don't want to risk any ship damages. It cost a lot to repair the ship."

The tall cargo pilot led the way into his ship's engine room. He pulled out a tube that would suck in fuel to refuel his ship.

"Do I have permission?" the cargo pilot addressed to the group.

Rala nodded. The cargo pilot opened the first fuel container's lid and put the tube in. He pulled a lever to start the sucking process.

"Uhmm… So… What're your names? You don't have to answer my question. I just want to know. I'm a friendly guy, so no need to feel hostile." the cargo pilot said in confidence.

The group looked at him. The cargo pilot believed that they didn't trust him after the bright light incident. Though it was his intimidating height, which he didn't know it was his height.

"Why don't you tell us your name first?" Ryan said.

"Okay… My name is Collin. Collin Billings." he responded with an open heart.

"Alright, Collin. My name is Ryan Maddox."

Collin nodded his head and looked at the Japanese officer. The Japanese officer glared at the tall pilot.

"Hiroyano Maeda or just Hiro."

Collin then looked at the two quarians.

"I am Ralanmock'Veerah nar Tolas" the quarian in blue replied.

"Jiraas'Saen nar Rosseka" the quarian in red too replied.

Collin gave a small smile. The lever automatically pulled itself up and made a loud clank noise. This surprised the two humans.

"It's okay. It does that to remind me that it fully sucked all the fuel in." Collin informed the humans.

Collin then opened the second container's lid and put the tube into the container unit. After he put the tube into the container unit he continued the conversation.

"I'm wondering on why you four keep giving me strange looks. I'm just asking. That's all. I don't intend to offend anyone." Collin raised his hands up.

"How tall are you?" Ryan cutted in.

Collin gave Ryan a strange look. "6 foot, 8 inches. Why?"

"That's why." Ryan commented.

Collin scratched his head in confusion. "That's why?" Collin lost his train of thought.

"Yes." Ryan nodded.

"Huh. Interesting. I've been noticing a pattern whenever I go to other planets. Everyone stares at me weirdly. I just didn't know my height contributed to it." Collin itched his head. "But please don't be intimidated by my height. I'm a nice person. I get along with everyone." Collin added a smile.

"I'll keep your word on that." Ryan said.

CLANK! The lever pulled itself again. Collin put the containers back onto the platform cart. The five exited the engine room and walked their way into the main room of the cargo ship. Collin looked at Ryan and Hiroyano. He noticed that their clothes looked worn out, but he didn't know it was military uniforms from the 1940's.

"Hey, Ryan and Hiro. Those clothes that you have on look beat up. I have some clothes and some shoes that I can give to you guys." Collin informed. He then looked at the two quarians. "I'm sorry, but I don't have clothes for you two. Rather I have a box filled with dextro paste for you two."

The two quarians were grateful for what Collin was giving to them even though they were hostile towards him.

"That nice, but you don't have to." Jira spoke.

"Yeah, you don't." Ryan added.

"Oh no, but you four do need some of these. You all have really helped me with the fuel. Plus I have to apologize for partially blinding you guys with those lights." Collin said.

The four were thankful for his nice gesture. Even Hiroyano put his pistol away after he heard this.

"Here I'll go get the crate filled with dextro paste and the clothes in my personal storage room."

Collin walked to his personal storage room of his ship and grabbed the crate labeled dextro paste. The crate was made of metal. It's size was only about the size of Collin's upper torso to his abdomen. He placed the crate onto a platform cart and he grabbed the clothes. He of course didn't know if the clothes would fit them. He pushed the cart with the dextro paste and some clothes on it to the main room.

"Here you guys go." Collin proceeded. "Also, I hope that these clothes will fit you two. I don't exactly know the size of those clothes."

Rala wondered where he got these from, so she questioned him. "Where did you exactly get these goods?"

"Oh, it's easy actually. I just go to other planets delivering goods. When I get the chance to go into the market areas, I of course would buy goods in case of any emergencies."

"Why would you get dextro food for?" Rala asked again.

"In case if there are any friendly faces like you four. I usually give these goods as gifts to those who help me or who are in need of it." Collin said in honesty. "Also I would have encounters with other groups of people like humans, turians, salarians, asari, and even quarians, so yeah. You're not the only encounter of people I've happened to stumble upon."

Hiroyano walked up to the towering pilot and gave him a deep bow. This signified that Hiroyano respected the tall pilot for what he has given to them.

"Thank you. Collin. I also apologize for my hostility towards you." Hiroyano with a strict and accented tone.

"No problem. You guys have helped me so much already."

"Well. We'll be heading on our way then." Rala advised.

Collin nodded and walked to the four. He took his hand out and shook everyone's hand.

"Thank you again. I appreciate on what you four have done."

"Keelah se'lai, Collin." Jira with gratitude.

Collin gave a smile to them.

* * *

The four made their way back to their ship. Rala undocked the boarding platform from their ship to Collin's ship. Then Rala set the destination to the mass relay, which was going to take an estimated time of one hour to reach due to the detour.

"You two should go and rest." Ryan saying to Jira and Hiroyano.

"I don't need to res…" Hiroyano was cut by Rala.

"Oh yes you do. We still have nine more hours to go after we go through the mass relay to Illium." Rala told them.

Hiroyano nodded. Jira had already left to the crew quarters without acknowledging the group. Hiroyano exited the bridge and entered the crew quarters. Before he left he grabbed a bag of clothes given to him by Collin. Leaving the other for Ryan. He noticed Jira unlacing something on what seems to be her boots while sitting on a bed. Hiroyano walked to where she was. Jira unlaced her boots and took it off. After she took off her boots she looked up and saw Hiroyano. Hiroyano was staring at her this made her body heat up.

Jira obviously had an interest to the Japanese officer. She had barely known the human which made it very awkward for her. Though she developed feelings for him.

Jira's Thought:  
 _I really can't believe that I have actual feelings for him. I don't even think that my parents would've wanted me to have a relationship with a human. I forgot… My parents aren't here. How dumb am I? Plus he's from the past. I don't even think humans from the past would fall in love with an alien. They only loved other humans because that's the only race they only knew. This too would apply to my people if I were from the past. It's all that Fleet and Flotilla bull crap that I have been watching._

"Something wrong, Jira?" Hiroyano said in his accent.

"Oh nothing!" she regained her thoughts.

The Japanese officer looked at the bag of clothes he was holding with his left hand. He knew that the uniform he was wearing no longer was needed. He didn't know where to change exactly. The one place he thought of to change was the bathroom.

"Excuse me, but I have to go change into these clothes." he bowed and left the crew quarters.

Jira nodded at him, but she was curious on how humans appeared with their clothes off. Her mind froze. She wondered why she was thinking of a human's physical appearance. She shook her head while face palming herself.

"I'm such an idiot. Whenever I see him I just want to feel his skin on mine." she said quietly to herself.

She sat on the bed and waited for Hiroyano to come back.

In the bathroom Hiroyano took off his uniform. Luckily for him his uniform it didn't have a stench to it. He folded his uniform neatly like how he was taught in the military. Hiroyano turned around and was staring at the mirror. His body told many stories. Those stories were of scars. He obtained those scars when he was stationed in China. He was interrogated by the Chinese when his whole platoon was devastated by the Chinese Army. This was before he was an officer that this had happened. Scars on the left and side of his torso, scars on his back, and a scar on the right side of his face. He walked closer to the mirror and placed his hand on his face. His hand was on his scar. The scar wasn't visible from afar, but was visible when close. The scar from his temple down to his jaw. Memories came back from those scars.

After hours of brutal interrogation he thought he was going to die, but he escaped. He fought his way out of the building he was held captive. He and his other compatriots fought the Chinese guards. His compatriots fell one at a time while the Chinese dropped in numbers. He commanded his compatriots on strategies and tactics. He thanked his background in sociology for such leadership. The Chinese lacked a leader who could have easily wiped out the Japanese captives. The battle between the two lasted about three hours. After the battle Hiroyano was praised by his fellow allies. Those allies recognized him as a potential officer, which indeed he became an officer at a young age. Not many young officers appeared in the Imperial Japanese Army. Eventually he would command a small army of soldiers to take over major cities. Leading the small army lead to the slaughter of thousands of men and boys. It also lead to the rape of thousands of women and girls. He closed his eyes for ten seconds

He opened his eyes and took out the clothes given to him by Collin. He put on the clothes. The clothes felt very strange to him. It wasn't baggy at all. It felt like a suit, but it wasn't. This surprised him, he fancied the clothes. The material it was made of was comfortable for him and the looks was to his appeal. The colors of the clothes are red, black, and gray. The pants was black, the shirt was red, and the light coat was gray. Along with it was the shoes. The shoe looked casual. The color of it was black too. After putting on his clothes he left and headed to the crew quarters.

He entered the room and still saw Jira still awake. She was using her omni-tool, but Hiroyano didn't know what that was. Hiroyano was fascinated on the advanced tools there were in the future.

"What are you doing?" Hiroyano questioned.

Jira looked up at Hiroyano. "I'm messing with my omni-tool."

"Omm… Omni… Tool?" he was very confused.

"Omni-tool. It's a multipurpose tool. Its also a computer. Everyone has one."

Hiroyano was still confused.

Hiroyano's Thought:  
 _Computers? What are those? And multipurpose tool? Like hammers and nails together and other things?_

He scratched his head. Jira looked at him not knowing on what to say or do.

"Maybe when we get to Illium, I could make you a omni-tool for you to have. I made my own omni-tool myself."

"Are you an engineer?" Hiroyano asked.

"Not exactly." she said uneased. "I'm actually a biologist. I work with lots of living organisms. It's strange that me being a quarian and a biologist."

"Why?"

"It's because not many quarians focus on a biology. Most quarians are engineers and or soldiers. That's what quarians make up of."

This intrigued Hiroyano.

"Does it matter? Before I became a officer I was a sociologist. My people. The Japanese people at the time were mostly farmers or soldiers. There were only a small handful of people who were sociologists." he confirmed to her.

Jira appreciated the similarities between the two.

"Oh. While you were changing I learned something new."

"Really? What is it?"

"Kon'nichiwa. Watashinonamaeha Jiraas' Saen nar Rosseka. (Hello. My name is Jiraas'Saen nar Rosseka)" she spoke in Hiroyano's native language.

Hiroyano was overwhelmingly surprised at what she had said to him.

"You learned my language? You spoke it so fluently." Hiroyano very shocked.

"Yes, but not a lot. It will take me a couple of hours to speak it."

"Hours?! Learning another language takes months if not years to learn!"

"Not when you have an omni-tool for it, and a mask that I'm wearing."

Hiroyano was lost. He didn't know on what to say. In English, but not it Japanese.

"Anata wa hayaku manabu kamo shiremasenga, watashi no yō ni kore o subayaku hanasu koto ga dekimasu ka? (You may learn fast, but can you speak this fast like me?)" he laughed.

"No fair! I can't pick up some of the words you just said!" she said playfully.

The two got to know each other very well talking to each other. They continued their conversations until they both felt tired. Jira had made her first non-quarian friend. Hiroyano too made his first non-human friend, but this made Hiroyano feel very different in his body. The talks they had made it feel as if they are very close friends. Hiroyano's body started to act different with Jira around him.

* * *

While in the bridge, Rala and Ryan sat. The two stared at the window that was showing space. The ship was close to the mass relay. Ryan looked in amazement, as he saw the giant infrastructure just floating in space. The mass relay emitted a giant glowing blue light. He couldn't take his eyes off such structure.

"Amazing isn't it." the quarian said to the human.

"Indeed it is." his jaw hanging low. "Who made such an amazing structure and what's its purpose?"

"It was created by the ancient and extinct race called the protheans. The main purpose of the mass relays are to transport ships to other systems like a network. It helps with faster travelling to other systems. If we didn't have these, it would take years or even centuries for travel."

"Are you saying that there are more of these giant things in other systems?"

"Yes."

Ryan was astonished on how many of the mass relays were created to provide transportation to the universe. The last thing that astounded him was the electric pinball machines he saw at bars, but this was beyond that.

"Hey Ryan." Rala's mouth piece glowed when saying that.

"What is it?"

"Why is it that you wear a different uniform than Hiro? Is it the ranks? Or does it have to do something with the squadrons?"

Ryan chuckled then spoke to the quarian "Well… Actually…" he was nervous.

"What?" the quarian was anxious.

"It's actually kind of hard to say."

"I'm not understanding on what your saying."

Ryan had a difficult time on what to say to the quarian wearing blue. Blue. Blue came into his mind.

Ryan's Thought:  
 _Blue! Yes blue! Why is she asking me this even though her and Jira aren't wearing the same colors either._

"Why aren't you and Jira wearing the same colored suits?" Ryan countered her question with his own.

Rala was of course readied for that question when it came to her. "The reason that I wear a different environmental suit from Jira is that we can tell the difference from each other, as it was also given to us when we were small children. You don't want everyone to wear the same color of environmental suits you bosh'tet. It will just be very confusing.

Ryan thought he had her, but she answered it with a precise answer.

"Back to you Mr. Maddox. You still haven't answered my question." she demanded.

"Alright! The reason is that it was the 1940's. I wear a different uniform from Hiro because our people are at war with each other."

"A civil war?" Rala turned her head to the right.

"Not exactly. You see, I'm an American and Hiro is Japanese. We are of different nationalities."

"So, who started it?"

"They did. They attacked American soil. They caused an event called Pearl Harbor. They bombed many of our ships and killed lots of soldiers."

"How did they bomb your ships? Couldn't they have lifted off at an instant?"

Ryan gave a stare at the quarian. This particular stare was of awkwardness.

"The 1940's. All we had was aquatic based ships. Not these giant flying ships. They used airplanes to drop the bombs on my people's ships. Then we declared war on them."

"Why is it that you don't want to still kill Hiro? He's still your enemy right?"

"No. He's not my enemy anymore. There's no point for fighting each other… Fighting each other is pointless. We're both stuck in the future. Not in the past. The past is something to forget about. I learned it the hard way actually." Ryan now in a down mood.

"What do you mean by that? The hard way?"

"I learned the hard way, when I was on the lines fighting the Japanese. In the battlefield we were fighting the Japanese to control a area in the Philippines. We were successful at capturing the base. There were many injured soldiers on the field. Americans and Japanese. I was helping my allies by bringing them back to base, but when I encountered a dying Japanese on the field…" Ryan paused then resumed. "He spoke to me in English. That surprised me because I always thought that Japanese spoke their own language not English. Enough with that though. He said that he didn't want to die and he told me that he wanted to be with his family. He missed working for the newspaper company. He missed his wife and his daughter. He told me his daughter was only two-years old… He couldn't be saved. Half his body was blown apart. Explosives took his blew his body apart. I had to shoot him. I had to take away his misery. I killed an innocent man. He didn't deserve this, but his involvement in the military took his life. He was considered to be the enemy." Ryan's fist clenched tightly. "For fuck sake. He didn't deserve this. I fucking hate war. It's pointless. The military personnel with the highest ranks would tell us to fight for them while they sat like fatasses watching ants fight each other. We aren't told on why we're where we are. I know that Pearl Harbor was something, but sending troops to their deaths is just idiotic. These troops have lives outside the military with some exceptions, but many of the troops had their girlfriends, wives, parents, siblings, etc. counting on them." Ryan shook his head. "I joined because I wanted the money, but now I see that the money isn't worth it at all. Fucking pointless." he chuckled.

This caught Rala's attention because her people are indeed at war with another race. Though this other race was created by her people. They are known as the Geth. She of course didn't know why fought the Geth, but her people tell her to kill them without knowing the true story of it all. She was told that the Geth betrayed her people and that's all. All admirals had control of the quarian people like how Ryan was being commanded by high ranking soldiers. War is pointless.

The ship began to enter the mass relay and it shot the ship from the blue glowing orb to the end of the structure.

* * *

 **Hello readers!**

 **I'm hoping I am giving you all a good story to read. I've been busy working on school work, so publishing new chapters will take a while to do. Midterms have been putting stress on me, but I will continue this story for you all!**

 **This chapter was originally going to be focused more on the crew on Collin's ship, but it was probably best to change it.**


	5. Chapter 5: The Opportunity

April 12, 2181

Tasale System, Crescent Nebula

Faster Than Light, FTL, the mass relay shot the ship from one system to another system. Mass relays, created by the extinct race called the Protheans. It was their greatest achievement ever. Creating these devices gave opportunity for the other races to use to quickly travel around the galaxy. Without these devices the races would have a difficult time meeting and trading with each other. Luckily the Protheans were one of the first races to have initiated in space travel.

The slaver ship appeared in the Tasale System, in front of the mass relay. The ship turned and made its course to Illium. The ship's appearance wasn't of a slaver ship, which made it feel like a civilian ship. Though the ship was previously owned by slavers. The group was lucky that this ship didn't appear with slaver designs.

Nos Astra, a regional hub of asari commerce with many riches. Nos Astra has a reputation for its abusive labor and legalization of everything except murder. Almost the entire production of goods and weapons from Nos Astra are of illegal. It finds itself almost as worse as Omega itself.

Hours pass and the ship nears Illium's surface. In the bridge, the sound of a beep plays. The quarian wearing blue pressed onto the interface.

"Welcome to Nos Astra. Before you dock, you will need to pay a docking and administration fee. Both fees cost 1,500 credits." the Nos Astra docking worker.

Rala pulled out her omni-tool and began to pay the fees. "Okay. I sent you the credits."

"Great. Here is your docking coordinates. Please enjoy the stay."

Rala docked the ship at the coordinates given to her by the Nos Astra docking worker. The ship was docked and ready to be boarded off.

Nos Astra, Illium, Tasale System

Ryan changed his clothes in the bathroom. The clothing he wore was a blue shirt and black pants. Along with the set was brown shoes, which he put on his two feet. He liked the clothing material, which it didn't bother him. It felt better than his worn out uniform. He got out of the bathroom and walked to the crew quarters. He entered the room and saw that Jira and Hiro had woken up from their sleep. Ryan walked to the sitting Hiro.

"Enjoy the sleep?" Ryan smirked and crossed his arms.

"I cannot say. It is weird because of space. Space has changed my sleep patterns." Hiroyano put his index and and middle finger on his face while shaking his head.

"Yeah. I understand. It also has affected my pattern." Ryan replied.

The two humans chatted with each other while the two quarians also chatted with each other.

"So. What are we going to say to the boss?" Rala rubbed her arm.

"Just say the truth. We were kidnapped by a group of batarian slavers and that's all. She wouldn't get mad, I think."

"You're right." Rala nodded.

Before leaving the ship, Hiroyano grabbed a graphical object with a symbol from his uniform and put it into his pocket. He was unsure of what it was. He also grabbed the amulet that transported the American and himself. Though the amulet was damaged from the firefight.

The four got out of the crew quarter and headed to the ship's exit. Jira pressed a button in which the automatic doors opened itself. They now walked outside of the ship. The temperature's was hot.

"It's pretty hot here. I think it's even more hotter here than the Philippines." Ryan tugged at his shirt.

Skycars flew about. Left and right. The buildings shined many lights from the inside to the outside. There were many commercial ads being displayed on the sides of buildings. The two humans were amazed at Nos Astra grounds. They couldn't take their eyes off of the ads especially. There was also many other different races conversing and walking around them. They also noticed other humans in the city. Along with a blue skinned humanoid with weird tentacle heads like squid, short masked people who wore masks like the quarians, some giant four legged creatures that looked like elephants, green and blue fish looking people, weird lizard people with their heads shaped like y's, and plated face aliens whose faces have painted faces. The two hadn't noticed any other quarians around in the area.

"Why are we here again?" Ryan asked while still looking at the buildings and skycars.

"Umm… We're here because we work here. On this planet." Rala hesitantly said.

Hiroyano squinted his eyes. The way Rala spoke, gave him a cautious feeling.

"What kind of work do you do?" Hiroyano wondered.

"We fix appliances like omni-tools and other devices. We also buy and sell appliances." Rala acknowledged.

The four continued their walk until they stopped at a shop. The shop's sign read Artere Applications. The size of the shop wasn't large

"Here we are. Artere Applications. It's a small business." Rala pointed to the the shop. "It's ran by our boss Kalry Artere.

Rala led the way into the small business while the other quarian and the two humans followed from behind. The four entered the shop.

The shop's interior was very clean. The colors of the the shop was white and gray. Shelves were presented to the right and left of the store. Each shelves held items, but the items are holograms. These holograms are to display the looks of the items. Then in the front was a counter. At the counter a machine lay on the counter. The machine was for purchasing and selling appliances. Though there was no one at the counter of the shop. This was odd especially for the two quarians. Usually there would be a person behind the counter, but this time there wasn't.

"Hello? Is anyone here?" Jira's hands were on the counter and shouted at the backroom.

A voice was heard in the backroom. "Yes. Someone's here. I'll be there in a sec."

The voice was familiar to the quarians.

An asari came out the back room and saw the two quarians. It was Kalry Artere. Her skin blue like the earth's sky, there was white marks on her face, she wore a brown dress that almost fell to the floor, her dress had two white stripes from her shoulders to her legs, and she appeared to be the same height as Rala. Her emotion was in shock at seeing them. She also noticed two humans behind them, but she thought the two humans were customers.

"I. We have customers behind you two. Can you two move to the side while I talk to these two gentlemen." the asari told the two quarians.

The two quarians looked at each other with confusion. They thought their boss would welcome them back or be angry at them for missing their work.

"We still work for you. You have our contracts with you." Jira clenched her hand to make a fist.

"Yeah!" Rala agreed with her quarian compatriot.

The asari's eyes grew large. This also made her feel anger because the two quarians were in the way of the two human customers.

"Look. I'll talk to you two later after these customers have ordered their appliances." Kalry pleaded.

"It won't be necessary." Hiroyano smirked.

"Yeah, we're actually with these two." Ryan said in a sarcastic tone.

Kalry was very confused after hearing that the two humans were with the quarians.

"What? Why? Why are they with you two?" Kalry in a paranoid mood.

"They saved us from a batarian slaver group." Rala crossed her arms. " We got captured by a batarian slavers when we were on our way to your shop. We don't know why they would capture us, but I think that they thought we were easy targets."

"Now we're back here to tell you that we were captured by the slavers and saved by these humans. Plus we were on a different solar system as well." Rala added.

Kalry's head fell below her shoulders. Hiroyano noticed Kalry's actions. He theorized that Kalry had something to do with the slaver incident.

"We've came back to work here. The contract said that we're working here under you, Kalry." Jira stated.

Kalry took a step back from the four and looked at the shop's window. The shop was silent.

"...I made an agreement with another client…"

"What sort of an agreement?" the quarian dressed in red asked.

"An agreement to which I sold you." the asari smirked and didn't look at the group.

"You sold us! You bosh'tet!" Jira in anger. She also pounded her fist on the counter.

The humans faces were muddled at hearing that the quarians were sold to another client.

Ryan's Thought:  
 _Sold? What does this mean? Were they slaves? No this can't be… I know that we were captured by slavers, but this doesn't make any sense!_

Hiroyano was furious at what he heard, but he kept his emotions to himself. While Ryan, his emotions came in an angry reaction. Jira couldn't have believed that her and Rala were sold. She thought that they had good standings with Kalry, but they didn't. Rala's mind was elsewhere. Nothing could be processed.

"That means that you sold Jira and Rala to the slavers then." Hiroyano said.

"Indeed, but now that the slavers are dead. Rala and Jira belong to me yet again."

"No… No… We won't work for you anymore!" Rala shouted.

"Yes. You will. You two are still under contract. With me." Kalry looked at the group.

"No." Jira quietly said.

"You have no choice. No one will buy your contracts. Only wealthy people can purchase your contract. Plus you don't have enough credits to buy your way out of it." Kalry shook her head.

Hiroyano thought of a way to get Jira and Rala out of this situation. He remembered that he had something with him. He didn't know if it would help, but he pulled it out of his pocket.

"Look. I have this to buy them." Hiroyano had the object in his hand.

Kalry's eyes grew, as she didn't know that was going to happen. She didn't know that the human was going to pull out his credit chit.

"I'll be buying them from you Kalry." the Japanese officer's said in his accent.

He walked to her and put the chit on the counter.

Kalry was nervous at seeing the chit on her counter. She walked back to her counter and grabbed it. Then she scanned it. The credit chit's balance was 10,000. She smiled at what she saw on it. Hiroyano saw her expression. He knew that it wasn't enough.

"Looks like you don't have enough credits to buy my workers." Kalry said arrogantly.

Rala and Jira's hopes were up, but their hopes went down when the credit chit's balance wasn't enough.

"I'll buy them." a mysterious voice came from behind the group. It sounded like a male's voice.

Kalry heard the male's voice. Her facial expression was confused, but yet excited to hear that. She didn't want the two humans to buy them from her.

The figure walked up to the counter. He was of course a tall person. This caught the four's attention, as they knew who this was.

It was Collin Billings. The man walked up to the counter and pulled out his omni-tool.

"How much for the two quarians?" Collin said.

This left the group speechless.

"75,000 credits." Kalry replied.

"That's a hefty price for just two quarians."

"75,000 credits or no deal."

"Didn't they recently come off of a slaver ship? That is no way a good deal. You don't want me to tell the people around here that you're selling your workers for full price even though you already sold them." Collin was very influential in his wording.

"Fine. 40,000 credits then." Kalry said in an upset tone.

"Deal. I'm transferring the credits now." He fidgeted with his omni-tool and transferred the credits to Kalry's shop.

"There you go. They're all yours." Kalry faked her happy tone of voice.

Collin turned around. "Now that the both of you work for me, follow me. And for the two of you. Get out my face." he winked at the four and pointed his fingers at the Ryan and Hiroyano. The quarians nodded their heads.

Collin walked out first and then the two quarians followed him. Then Ryan and Hiroyano exited the shop. They left the shop's proximity and got together as a group far away from the area.

* * *

Collin and the two quarians met up with the former soldiers far away from the small shop.

"Thank you very much Collin." Jira took her hand out to shake Collin's hand.

"No problem." he shook Jira's hand.

"Yes, thank you as well." Rala did the same like Jira.

"Again. No problem." he repeated the same action.

"How were you able to buy us? Aren't you just a cargo ship pilot?" Rala asked.

"Well. You see… Not only that I'm a cargo ship pilot, but I own a shipping company called NB Trading. New Bills Trading to be clear. It's a small sized trading company though." Collin smiled.

"I've heard of New Bills Trading before, but I saw it two years ago. While I was still on the migrant fleet of course." Jira said.

"Yes, of course, we do trading with the migrant fleet at some occasions when we're in the area." Collin pleased to hear from what Jira said.

"I just can't believe that bosh'tet sold us to those slavers." a disappointed Rala said.

"But we killed them. It doesn't matter anymore." Jira explained.

This caught Collin's attention. "Wait a minute. So you four killed a ship full of slavers and took over their ship and then saved me with their fuel?"

The group got quiet. Then Jira spoke up. "Yes. We did do that."

Collin was astounded of what they did, but Collin wondered on how Ryan and Hiroyano was captured. "How exactly did you two get imprisoned?" he pointed at the two World War II soldiers.

Ryan rubbed his head. "It's kind of a rough story to explain. Hell, I'll give it a go. So the way that me and Hiro were captured by those four eyed freaks was that me, Hiro, and his brother teleported to this place. The future."

"Batarians? What do you mean? And Hiro has a brother? Where is he?"

Hiroyano looked at the ground and then up to Collin. "What we are saying is that we're from the past. 1942. World War two and yes it was batarian slavers."

Collin's right eyebrow rose up at what he heard from the Japanese officer. "What about your brother?"

"My brother... " Hiroyano lost his sentence. "My brother. My little brother. He didn't make it... When we took over the slaver ship, there was one more slaver that hid from the battle." Hiroyano swallowed heavily. "The slaver shot my brother from behind, but I was able to kill my brother's killer. After that we buried my brother." Hiroyano was looking at the floor now.

The two quarians felt the sadness that Hiroyano had told to Collin. Ryan also felt it as he too was looking at the floor.

"I'm very sorry for your lost." Collin said with remorse.

The group quiet again.

"What are we going to do now? We have no work to do and it'll take us forever to complete our pilgrimage." Rala said to Jira. They're hopes down.

Collin overheard the quarian speaking to her compatriot. "Actually, I can provide work for you two. If you mind of course."

The two quarians turned their heads immediately to Collin. Their hope was raised. They thought they could never find a place to work again.

"You actually have work for us? Us quarians?" Rala questioned.

"Indeed I do, and for you two, too." Collin turned his head to Ryan and Hiroyano. "But you four will need a new ship. Can't have you guys flying a slaver ship." he chuckled. "The work is very simple. All its going to be is delivery, so it's not too bad. By delivery, I mean delivering goods, some weapons, foods, medicine, etc., but not the illegal substances. We don't trade illegal substances. It's illegal and it leads to a bad reputation with Citadel Council and other places that don't accept those substances."

Collin explained all of his businesses expectations and rules. Those expectations and rules were very fair and good natured. The most crucial expectation is that the deliveries had to be on time. The rules were that there will be no drug abuse usage, no treating others wrongly, and no inclusion of mercenary companies like the Eclipse, Blood Pack, Blue Suns, etc. The four qualified, which either did or are apart of any of those.

"Do you accept my offer?" Collin smiled and hoped that they would accept it.

The four looked at each other and nodded. "Yes. We will accept your offer." Jira nodded at Collin.

"Great! And here. It's an incentive for accepting the job offer." Collin handed four credit chits to the four. Each chit had a value of 9,500. He then shook each person's hands. "Still a lot of daylight left. You all might want to go buy some supplies and goods, and sell that ship to get a new one."

The group looked at each other. The two quarians especially were the most confused out of the group. They didn't know where to get a new ship.

"Where are we going to get a new ship?" the quarian wearing blue wondered.

"Good that you asked. I know of a person who would buy that ship and sell you a ship that wasn't made for imprisoning other people." the tall bearded man smiled at the four.

* * *

The skies of Illium were darkening by the hour. Illium's moon full and shining at Nos Astra. It was still hot outside even though the sun wasn't shining at the planet. Luckily Nos Astra shielded the intense heat from burning it's people alive.

The districts filled mostly with asari, volus, humans, and turians. Illegal activities occurred everyone in plain sight. The law enforcement let all those activities through without doing anything to those that do it. Nos Astra, a very corrupted asari settlement, but it brought many investors to the land to seek fortune. The fortune of being billionaires.

After the hours passed, the two quarians and their two human friends sold and purchased a new ship with the help of Collin that is. Their new ship looked more friendly. The ship's exterior colors are gray with green stripes. The interior colors are similar to the exterior, but with some black coloring. The ship's layout was smaller than the slaver ship's layout. The ship contained four rooms for personal quarters, a kitchen area, an engine room, bridge, a maintenance room, a small armory, a small lounge area, one bathroom, and the storage area that took most of the ship's space. The ship is indeed superior quality than the slaver ship, but the space was smaller. Luckily the ship was quarian friendly, as it had a decontamination system to decontaminate bacteria and other viruses from making the quarians sick. This would help the quarians to be able to clean themselves in the bathroom and in their own rooms. The quarians and Ryan seemed to enjoy the new ship while Hiroyano didn't care. When purchasing the new ship the group split apart from each other to buy their supplies and goods. The two humans together while the two quarians are with each other.

The Japanese and the American didn't know on where to go. Sign after sign they just didn't know on where to buy their supplies. They then stumbled upon a shop called Reeves two entered the shop. The shop was empty. It was as if the owner didn't have any trust with their customers. The shop didn't have a machine in which purchases could be made, but a man was behind the counter. The man appeared to be cleaning a pistol. The man's appearance is that the man was taller than the two by three inches. The man's hair was jet black like Hiroyano's, his hair length was medium, his hair was slicked back. He also bore a three piece facial hair combination. The clothes he wore was of a black button up with a black tie and black slacks. The man didn't notice the Ryan nor Hiroyano enter his store.

"Hello. We would like to browse your wares." Ryan in a friendly tone.

The man didn't seem to have listened to the American and Japanese soldiers. He was still cleaning his pistol. This seemed to irritated the young American.

"Hey. Are you awake?" Ryan waved his hand back and forth to get the man's attention.

The man put the gun from his hand onto the counter. The man picked his head up to look at the two. When the man's eyes met with the two, the two felt an odd feeling when looking at him. It was as if the man was glaring at the two, but wasn't.

"What may you want from me?" the man's voice was quiet and smooth with some scruff to it.

Ryan was now uneasy when looking at the man with his slicked back hair. The man didn't have an intimidating figure, but the stare and voice gave it an intimidating moment.

"We… We are wanting to know what you sale here." Ryan hesitantly responded. He couldn't collect his emotions at all. All he felt was fear. He hadn't felt fear, when his closest friend was killed.

"What I sale here are weaponries. It ranges from pistols, rifles, grenades, shotguns, and more." the man behind the counter said.

"A weapon's dealer then. I presume." Hiroyano crossed his arms.

"Indeed."

"We would like to browse your inventory." the Japanese officer said.

The man in all black attire nodded and pulled out a device that was a tablet. "You can order your purchases here."

"Order?" the American questioned.

"Yes. Order."

"I'm sorry, but we are leaving this planet in three days." Ryan worried.

"Just put your ship's identification in and it'll be delivered to your ship."

The two customers looked at each other and started to browse through the selection of weapons. The guns indeed ranged from what the man said. Each gun had different costs to it, which made the decision of choosing a gun was difficult. The larger the guns, the more it cost. They're only selections were pistols and some shotguns due to their credits they had. Ryan selected first then Hiroyano chose second. Ryan chose the Capper Pistol, a medium sized pistol that's power were able to break through shields in a couple of shots. The total amount of the gun is 5,750 credits. The designs of the pistol is that it had two barrels one on top and bottom, the ironsight colored light green, the gun's colors are grey and black, and there is a small mark that read WNR. Hiroyano chose the Hollow Lingerer Pistol, a pistol a bit smaller than the Capper Pistol, which it was made for silencing targets. The amount of the gun is 6,500 credits. The pistol's designs is that the pistol only has one barrel, on the side of the pistol a device on it which it is suppose to be a red line sight, the colors of it was all black, and it had the WNR markings on it like the Capper.

"What's with the WNR markings on all the guns?" Hiroyano asked the man in black.

"I made these guns myself. That's why it has the WNR markings on it."

"What does WNR stand for?"

"A name. Wicker Neoz Reeves."

"Huh. Fascinating." Ryan said.

"Your guns will be delivered to your ship in a week. A deliverer will be visiting your ship to give you your weapons."

"Alright. Thank you." the Japanese officer bowed.

"Yeah, thanks. Also sorry for being rude to you." the American apologized.

The man nodded at the two. The two then left the store and continued their shopping around Nos Astra.

"Hey Hiro."

"What is it?"

"Where did you learn on how to speak English?"

Hiroyano chuckled a little. "Well then…"

* * *

The two quarians walked together side by side getting to the necessary stores they needed to go to. They bought the goods they needed to help them. Foods, tools, small appliances, dextro medicine, etc. They even bought some levo based foods in case the two humans didn't know on where to buy food for their journey to becoming cargo pilots. Rala did enjoy that she was becoming a cargo ship pilot, as it is similar to her migrant fleet job. As for Jira she didn't mind that she was doing the job. All she cared about was that they are working in order to bring some goods back to their flotilla. She wanted her pilgrimage over with, but she had one person in her mind.

"I noticed that you have been talking more after we met with the two time travelers. What's been going on with you lately?" Rala said in a devious tone.

"Nothing. Really."

Rala poked Jira's elbow and giggled. "I know why you've been acting like this lately."

Jira's face started to redend, but luckily her masked prevented her face from being shown.

"It's Hiro, isn't it. You found that special somebody after all." Rala giggled nonstop.

The quarian dressed in red felt like falling down on the ground unconscious after hearing her close friend say that to her. Though she didn't dare say anything to Rala.

"Being quiet I see." she poked Jira again. "You can tell me, Jira. I won't tell anyone that you have the feels for that human."

Jira's Thought:  
 _Why is she tormenting me at this time? I know that she always torments me, but at this time I feel like punching her in the gut. I shouldn't have shown her Fleet and Flotilla. I shouldn't have told her that was my favorite vid._

"What about you? Do you have an interest in Ryan?" Jira counter-questioned Rala.

This caught Rala off guard, but she was able to answer Jira's question.

"You can say that I have an interest in him. He does have a funny personality. But… Back to my question. Do you love Hiro?"

That word love. It's a strong word to say and even hear.

Jira's whole body heated up. She knew that her face was red as a tomato, but in confidence she spoke to Rala.

"Yes… I do love him..."

Jira stopped in place. Rala didn't notice that her friend stopped until she looked behind her. This caused Rala to worry. They both stopped walking to their next destination. Rala moved herself to Jira. Jira stared at the ground.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Rala put her hand on Jira's shoulder. "I didn't mean to hurt you or anything."

Jira was very silent. She was crying. She muted her voice, so that no one could hear her crying on the streets, but her body moved up and down. This was a signal that that was crying. Then Rala moved in to hug her friend.

"I'm sorry for teasing you." Rala said.

Jira turned her voice projector on. "No. It's not you. It's me." her crying lowered.

"What do you mean?"

"I've been thinking that's all."

"Thinking about what? About Hiro?"

"Yes. I don't even know if he'll even have an interest in me. We're not even the same race. And him being from the past makes it all different." Jira's crying tone stopped.

"I'm sure that he has an interest in you. You just have to wait. Don't go over your head Jira. Anything can happen at any moment." Rala trying to comfort Jira. "Even I don't know if Ryan has an interest in me."

"Your right Rala... Thank you. Thank you for that talk."

"Hey. I've been seeing you taking care of him ever since we met with the two." Rala giggled.

"I see that you and Ryan seem to joke around with each other." Jira giggled also.

They released their hug and continued their walking.

* * *

The two World War Two soldiers had finished their shopping and were headed back to their ship. They bought clothes, foods, hygienic goods, levo medicines, bedding goods, and their own omni-tools. They had no knowledge of the omni-tool, but they bought their omni-tools because Collin informed them to buy it. Neither Ryan nor Hiroyano knew on how to use it. They just bought the omni-tools and left the shop without asking any questions. They of course needed help from their quarian friends on how to use the devices.

"I still can't believe that you came to America to do your studies. And I can't believe that you headed back to your homeland to just wage war on us. That's really strange you know?"

"It is strange, but I did not know that my people were going to be involved with your people."

The two continued their way to their ship as daylight began to fall quickly to begin the night rise. Hiroyano remembered that he had the amulet that brought Ryan and him to the future. He didn't know on what to do with it. He wasn't sure if the amulet still worked because it was damaged from the battle. The amulet had a hole in the center of it. He thought to himself if he hadn't had shot the captain it wouldn't have damaged the amulet, but another thought came to his mind. He wandered if shooting the amulet was the right thing to have happened. He wouldn't have befriended an enemy and the two quarians. This led to him thinking of his brother, Tetsuya. But the quarian. She tended to him, as if she knew him his entire life. Like she was following him from the day he was born. He never had admired any women back in the 1900's. He always had lots of admirers, but this quarian, this non-human. Just thinking about her made him feel comfortable. Whenever she was around with him she brought safety, comfort, and relief for the officer. He had never felt neither of these feelings all together. He only felt either one or two of these feelings with close friends and family, but not the three.

Thinking back into the past, Hiroyano felt only pain and misery. His mother died of natural causes, his father getting near his death, and his brother dead. He had no reason to go back. Seeing both the peaceful and violent sides of his past. The past was no longer a place to live. Being stationed in the Philippines made it no better. He was eventually going to be stationed in Hiroshima to train more soldiers to fight in the war. All he wanted was to make his father proud, but nothing came out of what he did. Hiroyano didn't have anyone to go to back in his homeland.

Ryan too thought about his past. He was always the loner type of person who couldn't build a relationship with anyone. The death of his closest friend, Lucina changed his entire life. Being raised in an orphanage, he was always a troubled child. When he met Lucina all his troubles were gone. She changed his life around to the fullest. Being a troubled child from being an untroubled child made his life expectancy longer. He was glad to have such a close friend who supported him in his early life.

Into Ryan's older ages pursuing a career was very difficult. He had no form of education, which made it harder for him to get a good paying job. He would always watch old films, which entertained him a lot. This caused Ryan to pursue a career in acting. He moved from Madison, Wisconsin, to Los Angeles, California. Living in California was more worse than living in Wisconsin. He was forced to live on the streets. Watching time go by, trying to get an acting role in plays. He eventually got a role, but a minor one. It didn't pay well for him. Still he couldn't afford to live in an apartment. Minor role after minor role, Ryan tried to get a major role, but the lack of an education was the cause. He eventually got tired of getting minor roles, so he enlisted into the United State's Army. There were many flyers hanged in the city for recruitment. The flyer read that the military would provide money and food. It also read that "You would be honoring the United States in its efforts". Ryan didn't care about the honoring part, but rather the money and food. Enlisting into the army, he was trained and stationed in many areas. From California, United Kingdom, Washington, and the Philippines. Being in the army, he didn't make any friends with his loner personality. Until now, he has gained friends. Friends that he can trust even if one of them use to be an enemy, but he didn't care. He was never discriminative towards other people of different race and gender. Ryan feels lucky that he met the quarians and his former enemy. His attitude showed that he's glad to be in the future rather than the past. He's even built a close bond to one of his quarian friend. He enjoyed her company. He might have enjoyed her company too much.

The two humans finally reached their destination. They entered their new ship. The lights were already on in the inside. Entering from the side of the ship, the room presented in front of them was the storage area. From every angle of the ship the entrances and exits are around the storage area. The two overheard voices in the kitchen and they proceeded to walk to the location. Ryan pressed on the door's button and it opened. The door revealed two quarians sitting together about to eat their dinner and converse with each other.

"You two were almost late. We were about to eat without you two." Rala giggled.

"But we made it on time." Ryan created thumbs up with his hand and showed it to the two quarians.

Ryan and Hiroyano unpacked their belongings and grabbed their dinners. Ryan took out a frozen personal pizza while Hiroyano pulled out a sushi platter. Hiroyano's food was already ready to eat, he sat at the table where the quarians are sitting. He sat in front of Jira. The quarians already had their food out, which were the tubed dextro food like the ones they ate on the previous ship. While Ryan was very puzzled on how to eat his pizza.

"How am I supposed to eat this? It's frozen." Ryan confused.

"Look for the instructions. It will tell you on how to cook your pizza." Jira informed the confused Ryan.

Ryan looked at the pizza's box and found the instructions. The instruction listed on the box explained that it needed to be heated up with a heating device.

"Is there any type of object that will heat this up?"

"Try the wave micro." Rala said.

Ryan opened the wave micro and placed his frozen pizza in there. He looked at the instructions and it told him to heat the pizza for twenty seconds. He pressed the number two and zero to make the wave micro to heat up his pizza.

"You're still eating those things." Ryan pointed at the quarians tubes.

"Unfortunately, yes. It's the only food we can eat without having us take off our masks." Rala sounded in a disappointed tone.

"That must be horrible." Ryan too in a disappointed tone. "It's really not fair on how your people can't eat the things that we can eat or the things that aren't those tube things."

"Yeah, but that's how it is." Jira contently responded.

A ding noise came from the wave micro. Ryan took his pizza out of the wave micro. He brought his pizza to the table and sat in front of Rala.

"Are we all ready to eat?" Ryan joked.

"Yes. We are." Rala responded.

The four all ate their dinner. The quarians plugging their tubed foods into their voice ports. The Japanese officer eating his sushi by picking the individual sushi's with a pair of plastic sticks. The American picking up one slice out of four with his hands and taking bites out of it. All foods of different sorts were eaten at the table. Out of the three foods, the oddest food that was being eaten was Hiroyano's food. He was picking up his sushi with plastic sticks and eating the sushi.

"How do you eat with those things in your hand?" Ryan questioned.

"The things in my hand? Are you talking about this?" Hiroyano showed Ryan the chopsticks.

"Yeah those."

"These are chopsticks." Hiroyano clamped the chopsticks three times. "I always eat with chopsticks except only when there are liquid based foods."

"How is that possible? That's like one of the hardest things to eat with."

"If you learn from others you can easily master the techniques of the chopsticks." Hiroyano clamped the chopsticks again while appearing in Ryan's face. Ryan moved his head back quickly when the chopsticks almost clamped at his nose.

Jira and Rala laughed at what Hiroyano did to Ryan. Ryan let out a small chuckle too.

The four finished their dinner and unpacked more of their belongings from the stores that they went to. Some of the belongings went into the refrigerator. While most of the personal belongings went to their own rooms.

The rooms that were for Ryan and Hiroyano were located on the left side of the ship while Rala and Jira's rooms were located on the right side of the ship. Each person's quarters were not too large or too small. They all settled down in their rooms, placing all the necessary needs they needed for sleep. Beds were already came along with the ship, but not the sheets, blankets, and pillows. The quarians felt like admirals with them having their own personal quarters. They both felt special that they had their own rooms rather than sharing it with other fellow quarians.

Hiroyano prepared his room. He set his katana on a rack holder. He didn't have much things to put in his room. He began to think about something. He had forgot to ask Jira a question when they were eating dinner. He walked out of his room and was in front of her door. He didn't want to be rude by knocking on her door. He wasn't sure if she was asleep or awake.

In Jira's room, Jira fixed her room to her liking. She couldn't believe that she had her own room to sleep in. Living in the flotilla, was very cramped and having personal space was rare. Fixing her room she didn't know on how to set her room. There was so much space that she just couldn't set her room. She was always used to having a bed and that was it, so she sat on her bed just staring at the floor. She thought on how Rala set her room. Or she too was struggling on how to set her own room. Jira just sighed deeply and chuckled a bit. Having a personal quarter is just too hard to maintain. Jira stood up from her bed. She wanted to check on Rala's success on how she set her room. She walked to her door and opened the door.

Looking in front her she saw the Japanese officer standing at her front door. Her body temperature rose. Her face was all red, but she was grateful that she had her mask to prevent others from seeing her face. The officer was looking to his left until the door opened. He turned his head to Jira's door and stared at her. Jira felt as if she was in a trance. The universe went into slow motion. She stared at the officer's face. She saw every detail of his face. The dark brown eyes, his short jet black hair, his moustache and soul patch, and the scar on his right side of his face. Jira already saw his face before, but seeing his face every time was heart pulsing. No other face made her feel like this.

"Oh…" Hiroyano very unnerved "...I was about to leave."

"Leave? Why?"

"I was about to ask you a question, but I thought you were already sleeping. I didn't want to be rude or anything." Hiroyano bowed his upper body and head.

"Oh. No. I was having issues." the quarian rubbed her arm.

"Issues? What sort of issue?"

"It's just that…" Jira rubbing her arm again.

"Just what? Maybe I can help you."

"It's that… This is embarrassing, but I don't know on how to set my room." she whispered.

Hiroyano stood in silence. He always thought that people in the future knew on how to set their own rooms. With the advanced technologies they had, setting a room is the most difficult thing there is in space.

"Here, I'll help you set your room then." the officer insisted.

Hiroyano entered the quarian's room and helped aid her in setting her room up. He was very organized because of his military experience. He placed each of Jira's supplies in areas that would help her find those supplies easily. After helping her set her room, he was glad that he was able to help her do so. She was very appreciative for Hiroyano's help.

"Thank you so much, Hiroyano. I couldn't have done this without your help." she walked up to Hiroyano and hugged him. Her eyes also closed when she approached him. She didn't notice that she went up to him and began to hug him.

Hiroyano didn't expect a hug from the quarian. He was expecting a handshake, but this felt more warming than a handshake.

"You are welcome." he smiled warmly.

Jira finally realized that she was hugging her human friend. She released her hug as quick as possible. "I'm very sorry for that…"

"Sorry for what?"

"For hugging you. I wasn't thinking at all. I was trying to shake your hands. That's all I wanted to…" Jira's body heated to the max.

"It's fine. I accept hugs. I does not bother me at all."

The Japanese officer stared at the quarian who was looking at the floor. He felt worried on why the quarian was staring at the floor.

"Is there something wrong? Did I do something wrong?" Hiroyano said in a concerned voice.

The quarian still looking at the floor. She didn't respond back to the Japanese officer. Hiroyano felt that he had to do something. He acted with haste. Wrapping his arms around the lifeless quarian's body. He held her close. He was so close that Jira was hearing the man's breathing. This was an intimate moment for her.

She loved the human. His appearance, personality, their conversations, and even his accent. He almost sounded like a quarian, but more weirder than a quarian. She then thought about her own appearance. No one has ever seen her own appearance, ever. The only people who saw her, were her parents and herself. The only thing that covered her true appearance was her enviro-suit. She damned her suit for concealing her appearance, but she thanked her suit for helping her survive. The only time she could get out of her suit was when she needed to clean her body. Just thinking about it, she also needed a decontamination system for her to actually clean her body. She damned her suit again.

The hug caused the room to be silent. Not even the sound from outside the ship pierced through the ship's steel. Jira's body burned to the maximum. Without a doubt her blush was so red that anyone could see through her visor. Though Hiroyano couldn't see through her visor, as he was hugging her.

"Is everything going alright for you?" the man's accent came out.

"...Yeah. Everything is going okay. I just needed to collect my mind. That's all."

The Japanese officer let the hug go. The hug lasted about forty seconds. He then placed his hand on the quarian's shoulder.

"You do not seem sure Jira. We can talk about it if you want."

"It's that…" Jira stopped. She thought if she could tell the truth to her human crush.

"What?"

"I can't believe that we found a place to work." she lied. She couldn't tell her crush that she loved him. She couldn't accept herself being with him. She thought of others being with him.

"Oh, yes. I was surprised that Collin gave us this job. Of being delievery people. Well you and Rala, not me and Ryan. Ryan and I are like the guards for the two of you." he chuckled lightly.

Jira was in denial. She thought she had the confidence to tell the officer, but she didn't. No one had an interest in her. She didn't have any interests in anyone except the human. Not even her own kind.

Hiroyano was very surprised that the quarian talked about the job. He was very sure that she was going to talk to him about something else. He knew that she lied to him, but he didn't want to pressure her as she was already pressured from before. Body language and voice tones are very easy to understand in Hiroyano's eyes. It was also confusing that he could read the quarian's body language and voice tone, as she wasn't a fellow human being. Though reading her was very eye candy for him. He admired the way she would act around him. Very strong and kind. He had never seen any other women do this. That being his mother was the other women like that.

"I almost forgot. What was your question you wanted to ask me?" Jira asked.

"Mmmm…" he was thinking deeply in his head. "Oh, I remember now." He pulled out an arm-ware from his pocket. The arm-ware's length would travel from his hand to his forearm.. "I don't know on how to use this. This onimi-tool."

Jira giggled at how he called the omni-tool, onimi-tool. "It's called an omni-tool. It's a multipurpose tool and computer that will help you in our travels. Here, I'll be helping you this time."

The quarian gave instructions to the human on how to use it. Step by step she went over the basics of the omni-tool to Hiroyano. She helped him create a personal omni-account to store all his credits, the tools that could help him in certain situations, and the computer aspects of the tool. She showed him the extranet part of the omni-tool. Seeing the extranet for the first time amazed the officer. The extranet provided an unlimited amount of of information stored in the universe's databases.

Hiroyano was very curious on what was on the extranet. He wondered if he was in it's database. He even thought about others that he encountered in his officering days. He even thought about learning Jira's people's history, the quarians. He noticed that he didn't want to be rude to Jira, so he turned off his omni-tool.

"So, that's it. That's all I have to show you on how to use your omni-tool." Jira's attitude was very upbeat.

"Thank you very much Jira." he bowed his head and body.

She noticed him bowing. She was very intrigued on why he did that. "You welcome." she bowed to him too.

"I think it is time for me to head back to my room. It is very late." acknowledging the quarian.

Before, Hiroyano made his way to the door, Jira spoke.

"Again. I forgot to tell you something."

"Yes?"

"Contact information on the omni-tool." she turned on her omni-tool and sent Hiroyano her information. "I sent you my contact information. You can send me e-mails, messages, and even call me if you have anything on your mind."

Hiroyano turned on his omni-tool and saw his contact list have, Jira, on his list. Her full name was provided in the contact list.

"Thank you again, Jira." he nodded his head this time. He also gave a wave to her and exited the room.

"You're welcome." she smiled in her visor.

She should've confessed herself to him. Her lack of confidence caused her to feel down. Sitting on her bed, she thought of many ways on how to confess herself to him. Thinking of each confession checked itself for failure. She couldn't do anything about it. Going back into the past her mother and father would tell her to never give up. Jira regained her strength, but this time she would have less of an expectation as before.

In Ryan's room, Ryan fiddled with the omni-tool he bought while sitting on his bed's edge. He found interesting things while messing with the omni-tool's interface. He scrolled up and down, he pressed the interface's buttons, and made circular motions on the interface. He easily navigated through the omni-tool's user interface. This made him very happy. Being able to figure a futuristic tool without needing the necessary help. Solving problems was what he had always done in his past.

He then stumbled upon the omni-tool's application. The extranet. He searched many things about the past. His first thing he searched was World War II. Looking through the information given, the allies had won the war. The Germans fell to the Soviets, and the Japanese fell to United States. One thing that caught Ryan's attention was how the Japanese fell to the United States. The word atomic bomb. The atomic bomb made Japan surrender to the United States. The atomic bomb killed roughly about thirty-nine to eighty thousand lives. Most of which were innocent lives. The bomb also made the people into shadows. He saw the images of how an atomic bomb created a mushroom like cloud. He then saw the shadows. Goosebumps followed up with him seeing that.

Seeing the information given on the deaths of innocent Japanese lives made him feel sick. War made him feel sick. Another tab appeared, which read "Cold War". This made him shake his head in disappointment. He didn't dare click the tab. He searched for something else. Clicking on the search bar, he began to type in the search bar his favorite music band. The Ink Spots. Links appeared when he searched for the group. He noticed one of his favorite songs from the group. The song called "I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire". He pressed the link in which it brought him to a video player. It played the song. The guitar in the song played, then came the singer. Ryan hummed along with the song. His feet also tapped along with the song.

There was a knock at Ryan's door. Ryan got up from his bed. He opened the door. A quarian wearing blue was in standing in front of the door. He gave a friendly smile at the quarian.

"Hey Ryan."

"Hey, Rala. What're you up to?"

"I'm just checking up on the crew."

"Then why aren't you checking up on Jira and Hiro then? Why me?" he crossed his arm and gave a smirk to the quarian.

"Well, just to let you know, I didn't want to bother Jira, as she had company in her room. So, I came to your room instead."

Ryan seemed very confused at what he heard. Jira having someone accompanying her in her room. He didn't think that Hiro would want to talk to her. He just shrugged his shoulders.

"What kind of song are you listening to?"

Ryan didn't notice that his music was playing. He turned his music off and looked at Rala. "The song is called I Don't Want To Let The World On Fire. It's by a group called The Ink Spots. Their one of my favorite music groups in the past."

"The Ink Spots? What a weird name for a group." she giggled

"I really like their group. Their songs have lots of meaning to it. You want to hear some of their songs?"

Rala turned her head left and right. She shrugged her shoulders. "I have nothing to do, so why not?"

Ryan played a small queue of songs from the band's collection. He enjoyed listening to their music. While Rala at first didn't know on what to think about the songs, but she got used to listening to it. Each song that was played had many meanings to it. Rala was able to decipher the song's lyrics. Most of it being about love and pain. The songs sounded similar to each other as well.

"What do you think of it?" Ryan questioned.

"At first I didn't like it, but now I have some liking to it. The songs are very calming and it carried a lot of messages."

"Yeah it does. Each of their songs gives lots of meaning."

The quarian faced away from her human crewmember. "I have a question for you Ryan."

"Alright. Shoot."

"Have you ever been in a bond with someone?"

"Bond?"

"Oh sorry. Bond is more of a quarian term. I meant to say relationship."

Ryan nodded his head understanding now on what the quarian said about bond. "I have been in relationships before, but it didn't work out. Many women that I had a relationship with wanted someone with wealth, which I didn't have at all.

Rala looked at Ryan and nodded. "How many relationships to be exact."

"About three, but it didn't last long. Like what I said. They wanted a wealthy man who was able to sustain a family of sorts. I couldn't provide that's all, because I was constantly poor." Ryan began to look at the ship's metal floor. "What about you? Have you ever been in a relationship before?"

"Well… You can count it as a relationship or not, but I've been in one with another quarian. It only lasted about a day. He really wasn't a pleasant person to have a relationship with. He was very protective and he restricted me from doing anything with my friends, so I told him that I didn't want to be with him anymore."

"Wow. Showing your dominant side." Ryan chuckled

"If you say so."

"So we've been on the same boat then."

"Same boat? I don't understand your human phrases."

Ryan's face was cold like a stone. He was silent.

"Same boat means that we've been in a similar position."

"Oh, okay. I have a little understanding of your human phrase now."

"Do you?" a very sarcastic tone came from Ryan.

"Yes, I do you bosh'tet."

"Sheesh. I didn't call you anything and you're calling me a bosh'tet." he put his hands up and laughed.

The two laughed together, enjoying each other's company. Both liked to joke around and conversate with each other. They felt a connection with each other.

Ryan knew that he felt close to his quarian friend. He just didn't know that the closeness was intimate. He couldn't believe himself. He had never thought that he had fallen for another person who was a whole different race, but he didn't care who he fell in love with. He wasn't like his southern compatriots in the United States. All he cared about was happiness. Happiness brought the true meaning of love.

* * *

 **It's been a while...**

 **Now that the four are given jobs, their journey together will create a strong friendship and bond as a crew. Their journey will lead them into more situations than ever. They will face many obstacles that prevents them from moving onward. Though facing these situations will give them an opportunity overcome these together.**

 **Sorry for keeping you readers waiting. I've been busy with school and other businesses. Finals are almost coming for me, which it could be another delay for another chapter.** **Chapters will now be longer than usual too.**

 **I will try to get newer chapters out as soon as possible. And thank you for those who have been waiting.**


End file.
